Connections hints (no spoilers)
Yellow
Think about what you open when you get dressed or pack.
Green
These very different products can share one long, narrow form.
Blue
Imagine these names printed on bottles at a fragrance counter.
Purple
Ignore the whole word for a moment. Look at what comes first.
Connections answer today — October 18, 2026
Yellow Think about what you open when you get dressed or pack. Reveal group Hide group
Places to store clothes
- BUREAU
- CHEST
- TRUNK
- WARDROBE
Green These very different products can share one long, narrow form. Reveal group Hide group
Things that come in sticks
- BUTTER
- DEODORANT
- DYNAMITE
- INCENSE
Blue Imagine these names printed on bottles at a fragrance counter. Reveal group Hide group
Famous perfumes
- ANGEL
- COCO
- OBSESSION
- OPIUM
Why these words fit today’s groups
Read explanations
Full spoilers below: a closer look at every group and the wordplay behind it.
Yellow
Places to store clothes
Each word can name a place or container used for clothing. Several tiles have other everyday meanings, so read them as objects for storage before trying a body-part or nature connection.
- BUREAU
- A bureau can be a chest of drawers. The office or government-department meaning is a distraction here.
- CHEST
- A storage chest can hold clothes or linens. In this group, it is a box with room inside, not the upper part of your body.
- TRUNK
- A trunk is a large container used for packing or storing belongings, including clothing. Tree trunks and elephant trunks use different senses.
- WARDROBE
- A wardrobe can mean a cupboard for hanging clothes. It also means someone's collection of clothes, but the furniture sense fits the other three tiles.
Green
Things that come in sticks
The connection is a physical form, not a shared use. Read each tile after 'a stick of' or think of a product sold as a stick. INCENSE may pull you toward the scented products, but its place here is about shape.
- BUTTER
- In the United States, butter is commonly sold in rectangular sticks. Other forms of butter do not stop this familiar format from fitting.
- DEODORANT
- A solid deodorant stick is applied directly to the skin. The spray and roll-on versions are not the form this group uses.
- DYNAMITE
- Dynamite is associated with cylindrical cartridges called sticks. The connection is the name of that form.
- INCENSE
- Incense is often made as a thin stick that releases fragrance when burned. Its scent is a tempting overlap with blue, but it is not one of the perfume names.
Blue
Famous perfumes
Read the tiles as fragrance names, rather than as ordinary nouns or other titles. They come from different perfume houses; the common feature is that each names a perfume.
- ANGEL
- Angel is a Mugler fragrance. Its everyday meaning does not explain the connection, so the brand-name reading is the useful one.
- COCO
- Coco is a Chanel fragrance. The tile may suggest a name or a film, but this board needs the perfume.
- OBSESSION
- Obsession is a Calvin Klein fragrance. The group uses the product name rather than the feeling described by the noun.
- OPIUM
- Opium is an Yves Saint Laurent fragrance. It joins the other three as a perfume name; no shared ingredient is required.
Purple
Starting with things that cloud the air
Take a word from the beginning of each tile: FOG, HAZE, MIST, and VAPOR. These are four different beginnings, not one shared sound. The four full words do not need to have related meanings. This is a spelling connection, so knowing a surname or a boat term is helpful but not essential.
- FOGERTY
- FOGERTY starts with FOG. The full tile is a surname, familiar from musician John Fogerty; it is not another word for fog.
- HAZEL
- HAZEL starts with HAZE. The tree, nut, and eye-color associations can distract from the four-letter beginning.
- MISTER
- MISTER starts with MIST. Read the letters before worrying about the title Mr. or a device that sprays fine droplets.
- VAPORETTO
- VAPORETTO starts with VAPOR. A vaporetto is a passenger waterbus used in Venice. Its Italian name comes from vapore, meaning steam, with the diminutive ending -etto. That origin helps explain the word, but the puzzle's grouping depends on the visible VAPOR beginning, not on four kinds of boat.
How difficult is this puzzle?
Our editorial assessment: the main hurdles are recognizing perfume names and switching from whole-word meanings to beginnings of words. This is an explanation of the puzzle's traps, not an official NYT difficulty score.
More Connections answers
Frequently asked questions
What are the Connections answers for October 18, 2026?
Puzzle #1225 groups BUREAU, CHEST, TRUNK, and WARDROBE as clothing storage; BUTTER, DEODORANT, DYNAMITE, and INCENSE as things that come in sticks; ANGEL, COCO, OBSESSION, and OPIUM as perfumes; and FOGERTY, HAZEL, MISTER, and VAPORETTO as words starting with FOG, HAZE, MIST, and VAPOR.
What is the purple group in Connections #1225?
The purple group is FOGERTY, HAZEL, MISTER, and VAPORETTO. Their beginnings spell FOG, HAZE, MIST, and VAPOR. The link is in the letters at the start, not in the meanings of the complete words.
Is the October 18 Connections puzzle difficult?
Difficulty depends on your vocabulary and cultural knowledge. The perfume names can slow down players who do not recognize those fragrances, while purple requires a change from meanings to spelling. We have not assigned an official or player-based difficulty score.
What does vaporetto mean in this puzzle?
A vaporetto is a passenger motorboat used as public transport in Venice. In Connections #1225, it belongs with FOGERTY, HAZEL, and MISTER because its first five letters spell VAPOR.