The Principal Financial Group (The Principal®) is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $519.3 billion in assets under management1 and serves some 19.7 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.
Insurance products issued by Principal National Life Insurance Co (except in NY) and Principal Life Insurance Co. Plan administrative services offered by Principal Life. Principal Funds, Inc. is distributed by Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. Securities offered through Princor Financial Services Corp., 800/247-1737, Member SIPC and/or independent broker/dealers. Principal National, Principal Life, Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. and Princor® are members of the Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392.
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Fans of the New York Times’ popular word-grouping game Connections have a fresh puzzle to work through for Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, marking game number 1,168 in the daily franchise. Below are hints organized by difficulty level, followed by the complete answer set for anyone ready to check their work.

Connections challenges players to sort 16 words into four groups of four, with each group sharing a hidden theme or connection. The puzzle assigns a color-coded difficulty level to each category: yellow represents the most straightforward group, followed by green, then blue, with purple reserved for the trickiest and most conceptually deceptive category of the day. Players are allowed up to four incorrect guesses before the puzzle ends and the full solution is revealed automatically. The game, created by New York Times puzzle editor Wyna Liu, launched in beta in June 2023 and has since grown into the second-most-played puzzle in the Times’ games lineup, trailing only Wordle itself in overall popularity.

According to Tom’s Guide, which rates each day’s puzzle difficulty on a five-point scale using its own Connections Companion tool, Saturday’s puzzle scored a relatively low 1.3 out of 5, indicating an easier-than-average solve compared with earlier in the week.

Here are hints for each of today’s four categories, presented from easiest to hardest.

The yellow group, the most straightforward of the day, centers on a set of common workshop tools used for cutting and shaping wood. One hint offered by puzzle solvers described it simply as “handy,” a nod to tools used to drive nails, carve wood and smooth surfaces.

The green group focuses on a specific category of fruit, distinguished by compound names that each begin with a different descriptive word attached to the same base term. One clue offered for this category noted that “summer makes them sweeter,” pointing toward warm-weather produce.

The blue group centers on settings commonly found on an adjustable garden hose nozzle, the kind used to water plants or wash a car, with each answer representing a different spray pattern. A hint circulating among puzzle solvers specifically noted, “Don’t forget to water the plants.”

The purple group, traditionally the most conceptually challenging category each day, links four well-known cultural references that all share a common trailing word. According to hints shared by solvers, the connection draws from entertainment and pop culture more broadly, spanning references from television, film and music. One clue pointed players toward well-known “Girls” references, comparing the category to groups like Destiny’s Child or the ensemble cast of the sitcom “Living Single.”

Spoiler warning: The full answer set for today’s Connections puzzle follows below.

The complete answers for NYT Connections puzzle number 1,168, published Saturday, Aug. 22, 2026, are as follows:

Yellow Group — Carpentry Tools: CHISEL, HAMMER, PLANE, SAW

Green Group — Kinds of Melon: BITTER, MUSK, WATER, WINTER

Blue Group — Garden Hose Settings: CONE, JET, MIST, SHOWER

Purple Group — ___ Girls of Pop Culture: GILMORE, GOLDEN, MEAN, SPICE

The purple category proved to be the day’s trickiest grouping precisely because its connecting word, “Girls,” follows each answer rather than preceding it, and because two of the four words carried plausible alternative meanings that could easily mislead solvers. GOLDEN could reasonably be read as a descriptor tied to age or color, while MEAN might just as easily be interpreted as either “average” in a mathematical sense or “unkind” in a personal one, rather than immediately calling to mind the 2004 teen comedy film “Mean Girls.” GILMORE and SPICE, by contrast, tended to be recognized more quickly by solvers given their strong and specific associations with the television drama “Gilmore Girls” and the pop group Spice Girls, respectively.

Several of the puzzle’s other categories also included deliberate decoys designed to mislead solvers into premature groupings. The words PLANE and JET, for instance, could easily tempt players into forming an aviation-themed group together, when in fact PLANE belonged to the carpentry tools category and JET belonged to the garden hose settings group instead. Similarly, CONE might initially suggest an ice cream treat or a traffic cone to many solvers, rather than its actual role as a specific spray pattern setting found on garden hose nozzles.

For players hoping to preserve a winning streak or avoid accidentally spoiling the puzzle for themselves, Connections resets at midnight local time each day, consistent with the New York Times’ broader approach to its daily puzzle offerings, meaning today’s puzzle and its answers will remain the same for all players regardless of time zone, while a fresh puzzle becomes available starting at each individual player’s local midnight.