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Today’s NYT Connections puzzle was great fun for me, as I’m the co-author of two pop-culture encyclopedias, one about the 1970s, and 1980s and the other about the 1990s. Two of the categories are retro-themed! Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Hints for today’s Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Farrah hair.
Green group hint: Totally tubular!
Blue group hint: Bock-bock!
Purple group hint: Can refer to a dairy product or a cosmetic.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Retro hair directives.
Green group: Retro slang for cool.
Blue group: Chicken descriptors.
Purple group: ____ cream.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The completed NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 18, 2026.
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is retro hair directives. The four answers are crimp, curl, feather and tease.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is retro slang for cool. The four answers are bad, fly, rad and wicked.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is chicken descriptors. The four answers are bantam, crested, free-range and leghorn.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is ____ cream. The four answers are heavy, shaving, sour and topical.