Lifehacker posted the hints and answers for NYT Connections #1,174 on Friday, and the maxxing coded era crowd got a spoiler warning before the solutions. Tim Mulkerin opens by telling readers to read on for clues, tips, strategies, and then all four categories.
His exact setup was: “If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, August 28, 2026, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories.” That matters here because the page is designed to help people solve first, then reveal the board.
Lifehacker and Tim Mulkerin
Mulkerin, a freelance writer, editor, and social media manager, has worked in digital media and the tech world since 2016. He also has a bachelor’s degree in art history and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in communicative sciences and disorders from New York University.
He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and that background sits inside a puzzle-help page rather than a straight news report. So the reader gets the answers, but only after the article tries to slow the reveal enough to prevent an accidental glance at the grid.
NYT Connections #1,174
The yellow category is BEDTIME PARTING WORDS. Its answers are NIGHT, REST EASY, SLEEP TIGHT, and SWEET DREAMS. The green category is PALINDROMES, with MOM, NOON, SIS, and TOP SPOT.
Those two sets show the main solving pattern. One group collects short send-offs people use at night, while the other groups words and phrases that read the same forward and backward. For players, that means the puzzle is not just about vocabulary but about recognizing the shape of a phrase.
The page also gives a small logic check on the green set: MOM and SIS go together, but BRO and POPS do not go with them. MORNING belongs at the end of a phrase used when crudely imitating an Irish accent, and NIGHT is a shortened version of “goodnight.”
BEDTIME PARTING WORDS
The most practical part of the page is simple: it hands over the day’s clues and solutions in a way that lets a reader stop before the final reveal if needed. That fits the spoiler warning built into the piece, which is why the answers arrive after the hints instead of before them.
For anyone still working the board, the unanswered part is the grouping logic behind the other categories. The page gives the yellow and green solutions outright, but it leaves readers to use the same pattern-recognition approach for the rest of NYT Connections #1,174.
