NYT Connections #986 Today February 21, 2026

NYT Connections #986 Hints Today

Before jumping straight to the answers, these hints help guide your thinking without completely spoiling the puzzle.

Yellow category hint: Words related to a person’s life story or experiences
Green category hint: Terms used in attendance or roll call
Blue category hint: Reactions or feedback about your performance
Purple category hint: Each word secretly contains a car brand at the beginning

These hints point you in the right direction while still allowing you to solve the puzzle yourself.

NYT Connections #986 Answers Today (Full Solution)

Here are the correct groups and their categories.

Yellow Category: EXPERIENCE

• BACKGROUND

• HISTORY

• LIFE

• PAST

These words all describe a person’s previous experiences, events, or personal journey. This category was relatively easy because these terms are commonly used when talking about someone’s story or history.

For example:

• Job applications ask about your background

• Biographies describe your life

• Conversations often refer to your past

This makes the connection logical and familiar.

See also: Brookhaven Utility Vehicles Update Release Time Feb 20, 2026

Green Category: ATTENDANCE STATUS

• ABSENT

• EXCUSED

• LATE

• PRESENT

These are standard attendance terms used in schools, workplaces, and official records.

If you’ve ever attended school or worked in an office, you’ve seen these statuses used to track participation.

This category was easy to recognize because all words clearly belong to attendance systems.

Blue Category: COMMENTARY ABOUT YOUR CONNECTIONS RESULTS

• GREAT

• PERFECT

• PHEW

• SOLID

These words reflect reactions or feedback related to performance.

They represent how players feel or what the game might express after completing a puzzle:

• Perfect → flawless solve

• Great → strong performance

• Solid → reliable result

• Phew → relief after solving a difficult category

This category required thinking about emotional reactions rather than objects or categories.

Purple Category: CAR BRANDS PLUS EXTRA LETTERS

• AUDITS → AUDI

• DODGERS → DODGE

• INFINITIVE → INFINITI

• MINION → MINI

This was the hardest category in today’s puzzle.

Each word secretly begins with a car manufacturer name:

• AUDI

• DODGE

• INFINITI

• MINI

The extra letters at the end hide the pattern, making it harder to notice immediately.

This type of hidden prefix pattern is very common in difficult Connections puzzles.

Why Today’s Puzzle Was Challenging

Today’s puzzle difficulty was moderate to hard because of the hidden structure in the Purple category.

The first two categories were easy because they used familiar real-world concepts:

• Life experience

• Attendance systems

The Blue category required a mental shift toward emotional or performance reactions.

But the Purple category required advanced pattern recognition and attention to detail.

Difficulty rating: 4 out of 5

Key Pattern You Should Learn from Today’s Puzzle

One of the most important lessons from today’s puzzle is recognizing hidden words inside longer words.

Connections often hides patterns using:

• Brand names

• Prefixes

• Root words

• Sound patterns

For example:

AUDITS looks like a normal word, but it secretly contains AUDI.

Once you train your brain to look for hidden patterns, solving hard categories becomes easier.