NYT Connections #1232 for October 25, 2026 has four color groups and sixteen tiles.
Clues and answers are tucked inside separate closed panels, so you can choose how much help to reveal.
Select a color to see its clue, or use the answer section for the complete solution. Definitions and explanations follow in their own section.
Playing The Athletic's sports puzzle? Sports Edition hints and explanations.
Connections hints (no spoilers)
Yellow
Show hint Hide hint
Four verbs for taking something that is not yours.
Green
Show hint Hide hint
Edible forms you might find in a bowl or on a plate, named for their shapes.
Blue
Show hint Hide hint
Put the same first name before each tile to identify four fictional characters.
Purple
Show hint Hide hint
The same verb can describe a gesture, a play-starting pass, an activation or a sudden break.
Connections answers — October 25, 2026
Yellow Four verbs for taking something that is not yours. Reveal group Hide group
STEAL
- BOOST
- PALM
- SWIPE
All four have a verb sense that fits stealing. BOOST is slang for stealing or shoplifting. PALM can mean to take something stealthily, beyond simply hiding it in a hand. POCKET can mean to appropriate something for your own use, and SWIPE can mean to steal. Their other senses, such as increasing something or using a touchscreen, do not supply this shared meaning.
Read this group’s word explanationsGreen Edible forms you might find in a bowl or on a plate, named for their shapes. Reveal group Hide group
PASTA SHAPES
- BOW TIE
- ELBOW
- SHELL
- WAGON WHEEL
Picture four pasta shapes: BOW TIE is pinched in the middle, ELBOW is a short curved tube, SHELL resembles a seashell, and WAGON WHEEL has a round rim with spokes. The names describe recognizable forms rather than four ingredients or sauces. The clothing, body-part and vehicle readings are distractions from the food connection.
Read this group’s word explanationsBlue Put the same first name before each tile to identify four fictional characters. Reveal group Hide group
FICTIONAL TOMS
- RIPLEY
- SAWYER
- SWIFT
- THUMB
Put TOM before each tile: Tom Ripley, Tom Sawyer, Tom Swift and Tom Thumb. Ripley is Patricia Highsmith's character, Sawyer is Mark Twain's boy adventurer, Swift is a young inventor in adventure fiction, and Thumb is a tiny folktale hero. These are character-name completions. Calling every tile a family surname would be too restrictive: Thumb describes the folktale character's tiny size.
Read this group’s word explanationsPurple The same verb can describe a gesture, a play-starting pass, an activation or a sudden break. Reveal group Hide group
THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPED
- FINGERS
- FOOTBALL
- GLOW STICK
- RUBBER BAND
The shared verb is SNAP, with a different sense for each tile. FINGERS can be snapped to make a sound. A FOOTBALL is snapped backward to put it in play. Bending a GLOW STICK breaks its inner glass tube so the chemicals can mix and produce light. A RUBBER BAND can be snapped or broken. The football use shows why the rule cannot be reduced to things that make a noise or break.
Read this group’s word explanationsWhy these words fit
Read explanations
Full spoilers below: a closer look at every group and the wordplay behind it.
Yellow
STEAL
All four have a verb sense that fits stealing. BOOST is slang for stealing or shoplifting. PALM can mean to take something stealthily, beyond simply hiding it in a hand. POCKET can mean to appropriate something for your own use, and SWIPE can mean to steal. Their other senses, such as increasing something or using a touchscreen, do not supply this shared meaning.
- BOOST
-
BOOST can mean to steal or shoplift in slang. Use that theft sense here, rather than its familiar meaning of raising or improving something.
- PALM
-
PALM has a verb sense meaning to take or pick up stealthily. That is the theft connection here. Concealing a coin in your hand is another palming action, but concealment by itself does not establish that anything was stolen.
-
POCKET can mean to appropriate something for your own use or steal it. In that sense it fits the other three verbs. Merely putting an item in a pocket, or legitimately earning money, does not necessarily imply theft.
- SWIPE
-
SWIPE is a direct informal verb for stealing. It also describes a sliding motion on a screen or card reader, so solvers may need to set aside the tech sense to see the theft link.
Green
PASTA SHAPES
Picture four pasta shapes: BOW TIE is pinched in the middle, ELBOW is a short curved tube, SHELL resembles a seashell, and WAGON WHEEL has a round rim with spokes. The names describe recognizable forms rather than four ingredients or sauces. The clothing, body-part and vehicle readings are distractions from the food connection.
- BOW TIE
-
BOW TIE is a pasta shape pinched at the center to look like a formal necktie. The name is purely descriptive, and the clothing item is the decoy sense.
- ELBOW
-
ELBOW pasta is the short, curved tube familiar from macaroni and cheese. The joint in the arm shares the name but is not the food connection.
- SHELL
-
SHELL refers to seashell-shaped pasta, also called conchiglie. The shape supplies the food connection; a protective covering by itself does not.
- WAGON WHEEL
-
WAGON WHEEL refers to round pasta with spokes meeting a rim. De Cecco describes its rotelle in those terms. A particular large size is not part of the grouping rule.
Blue
FICTIONAL TOMS
Put TOM before each tile: Tom Ripley, Tom Sawyer, Tom Swift and Tom Thumb. Ripley is Patricia Highsmith's character, Sawyer is Mark Twain's boy adventurer, Swift is a young inventor in adventure fiction, and Thumb is a tiny folktale hero. These are character-name completions. Calling every tile a family surname would be too restrictive: Thumb describes the folktale character's tiny size.
- RIPLEY
-
RIPLEY points to Tom Ripley, the charming and dangerous protagonist of Patricia Highsmith's novels. The surname alone is enough for readers who know the character.
- SAWYER
-
SAWYER points to Tom Sawyer, the mischievous boy in Mark Twain's novels. The name is a surname here, and the first name Tom is the hidden link.
- SWIFT
-
SWIFT points to Tom Swift, the young inventor in a long series of adventure books. The surname also suggests speed, which is a decoy rather than the connection.
- THUMB
-
THUMB completes Tom Thumb, the tiny folktale character. An English version links the name to his thumb-sized stature. Treat it as part of the character's name rather than assuming it is an ordinary family surname.
Purple
THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPED
The shared verb is SNAP, with a different sense for each tile. FINGERS can be snapped to make a sound. A FOOTBALL is snapped backward to put it in play. Bending a GLOW STICK breaks its inner glass tube so the chemicals can mix and produce light. A RUBBER BAND can be snapped or broken. The football use shows why the rule cannot be reduced to things that make a noise or break.
- FINGERS
-
You snap your FINGERS by pressing the thumb and middle finger together and letting them slip, producing a sharp click. The plural is the usual form for the gesture.
- FOOTBALL
-
In football, the ball is snapped when the center passes it backward to begin a play. The verb describes the action, not the ball itself.
- GLOW STICK
-
A GLOW STICK is activated by bending it until the inner tube snaps, mixing chemicals that produce light. The snap is the step that starts the glow.
- RUBBER BAND
-
A RUBBER BAND can snap when stretched too far, and it can also be snapped against a surface to make a sound. Both uses fit the shared verb.
How difficult is this puzzle?
This board looks approachable at first because the yellow group is built from familiar informal verbs, but the overlap is real: PALM and SWIPE both suggest handling or taking, and POCKET can read as a noun before it reads as a verb. The green group rewards anyone who pictures food shapes, though ELBOW and SHELL also have everyday non-food senses that can pull solvers away. The blue group is the trickiest of the middle two, since the shared first name is not printed anywhere and the printed name fragments have other familiar readings. The purple group is an editorial impression of the hardest: the four items are concrete and familiar, but the shared action is a verb that applies to each in a different way, so the link only clicks once the phrasing is found.
More Connections answers
Frequently asked questions
What are the four groups in Connections #1232?
The yellow group is STEAL: BOOST, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE. The green group is PASTA SHAPES: BOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL, WAGON WHEEL. The blue group is FICTIONAL TOMS: RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT, THUMB. The purple group is THINGS THAT CAN BE SNAPPED: FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK, RUBBER BAND.
Why do RIPLEY, SAWYER, SWIFT and THUMB belong together?
Put TOM before each tile to get Tom Ripley, Tom Sawyer, Tom Swift and Tom Thumb. They are fictional characters linked by the first name Tom. The rule does not require every printed tile to be a family surname: Thumb refers to the folktale character's small stature.
How are BOW TIE, ELBOW, SHELL and WAGON WHEEL connected?
All four are pasta shapes: a pinched BOW TIE, a curved tubular ELBOW, a seashell-shaped SHELL and a round WAGON WHEEL with spokes. Their food shapes supply the connection.
What does it mean that FINGERS, FOOTBALL, GLOW STICK and RUBBER BAND can be snapped?
SNAP describes different actions: making a finger sound, passing a football backward to put it in play, breaking a glow stick's inner glass tube to activate it, or snapping a rubber band. The football action need not involve breaking the ball or making a sharp sound.
Why does PALM fit STEAL rather than just hiding something?
PALM can mean to take or pick up something stealthily. That sense fits STEAL. Hiding an object in your hand is another meaning, but a card trick with your own coin would not by itself be theft.
Sources & further reading
Sources & further reading
- The New York Times — Connections
- Merriam-Webster — boost, including theft slang
- Merriam-Webster — palm, including stealthy taking
- Merriam-Webster — pocket
- Merriam-Webster — swipe
- San Giorgio — farfalle and its bow-tie shape
- San Giorgio — elbow macaroni
- San Giorgio — seashell-shaped pasta
- De Cecco — round rotelle with spokes
- Penguin — Patricia Highsmith and Tom Ripley
- Penguin Random House — Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer
- Simon & Schuster — Tom Swift, the fictional inventor
- University of Pittsburgh — Tom Thumb folktale texts
- Merriam-Webster — snap, including fingers and football
- American Chemical Society — how a glow stick is activated