NYT Connections today hints and answers for Thursday, July 30 #1,145

NYTimes Connections
(Image credit: Future)

Today's puzzle is going to sea for an exacting vacation.

Find our guide to New York Times Connections answers and hints for July 30 below.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #1,145. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

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Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #1,144, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

What is Connections

Solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Today's Connection Grid and Words

The New York Times Connections puzzle unsolved on Thursday, July 30, 2026

(Image credit: New York Times)
  • Juggling
  • Carnival
  • Dot
  • Fair
  • Bingo
  • Right
  • Pool
  • Nose
  • Money
  • Good
  • Beer Pong
  • Celebrity
  • Viking
  • Mark
  • Princess
  • Just

We have the Connections categories below, but here's a hint without the actual titles. Try this out:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Paladin
  • 🟩 Green: Having a ball
  • 🟦 Blue: Vacation
  • 🟪 Purple: Exact

Today's Connections Group Hints

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Virtuous
  • 🟩 Green: Activities with multiple balls
  • 🟦 Blue: Cruise lines
  • 🟪 Purple: On the ____, to mean "precise"

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Today's Connections answers

The Connections answers on July 29 for puzzle #1,144 are an eeensy bit easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 1.8 out of 5.

  • 🟨 Virtuous: Fair, good, just, right
  • 🟩 Activities with multiple balls: Beer pong, bingo, juggle, pool
  • 🟦 Cruise lines: Carnival, celebrity, princess, viking
  • 🟪 On the ____, to mean "precise": Dot, mark, money, nose

The New York Times Connections puzzle on Thursday July 30, 2026

(Image credit: New York Times)

It didn't really matter what the other sets were; I saw the cruise ships almost immediately with princess and Carnival. It was quick work to lock down celebrity and viking next.

Did I somewhat see the on the (blank) group? Yes, did I get stuck on the idea of the word dot matrix, which broke the set for me? Also yes.

Which is why I went with the ball-based set of beer pong, pool, bingo and juggling, though I was initially looking for bar games.

Anyway, that left fair, good, just and right as my final virtuous four.

Yesterday's Connections answers

  • 🟨 Fasteners: Nail, rivet, screw, staple
  • 🟩 Nondescript: Basic, mid, plain, vanilla
  • 🟦 Units of wisdom: Gem, nugget, pearl, word
  • 🟪 ____boards in a classroom: Black, chalk, cork, white

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #1,144, which had a difficulty rating of 2 out of 5.

I started today chasing boards when I saw cork. Black and chalk followed quickly, and it took a second for white to reveal itself.

I guessed that the fasteners set was green with nail, rivet, pearl, and word, but got it wrong.

Somehow this got the 'of wisdom' to click with gem, nugget, pearl and word.

Which left basic, mid, plain, and vanilla as the final four.

Scott Younker
West Coast Reporter

Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him. He also handles all the Connections coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game since it released.

With contributions from