Need a nudge for NYT Connections puzzle #989? Here are graduated hints for Tuesday, February 24, 2026, followed by the four category names and the complete answer key. Stop before the spoiler warning if you want to keep the solutions hidden.
How NYT Connections works
Connections asks you to sort 16 tiles into four groups of four, with each group linked by a shared idea. This guide covers puzzle #989, dated Tuesday, February 24, 2026.
Hints for puzzle #989
Start with the broad clues below. Each points toward a category without listing its four tiles.
- Yellow: Think of common white structures formed from a mineral.
- Green: Look for familiar emblems of a nation associated with kilts.
- Blue: These tiles point to well-known dramatists.
- Purple: Put the same rhyming word after each tile to complete a phrase.
Spoiler warning: full answers below
The category names and all sixteen answers follow.
Yellow — Calcium-based structures
BONES, CORAL, SHELLS, TEETH
Green — Symbols of Scotland
BAGPIPES, SCOTTIE, TARTAN, THISTLE
Blue — Famous playwrights
CHEKHOV, COWARD, MILLER, SHAW
Purple — Words before “beam”
BALANCE, JIM, LASER, TRACTOR. The completed phrases are balance beam, Jim Beam, laser beam, and tractor beam.
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All 16 tiles
COWARD, LASER, SCOTTIE, BONES, JIM, CORAL, BALANCE, CHEKHOV, THISTLE, SHAW, SHELLS, TRACTOR, TARTAN, TEETH, MILLER, BAGPIPES.
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