NYT Connections #1059
Hints, category titles, and full answers for Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Connections Hint #1059 — May 5, 2026
Connections Walkthrough — May 5, 2026
A breakdown of every category from the May 5, 2026 puzzle, the trap words designed to fool players, and what made it tricky.
Group-by-group breakdown (easiest to hardest)
- INVOLUNTARY ACTIONS
You can group BLINK, HICCUP, SHIVER, and SNEEZE as automatic body responses.
- GLIMMER
After that, HINT, SUGGESTION, WHIFF, and FLICKER all suggest a very faint trace.
- KINDS OF KNOTS
BOWLINE and SHEEPSHANK strongly point to rope terminology, helping you add BEND and HITCH.
- STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS
With leftovers, you can inspect openings: GAME, MATCH, POINT, and SET start the four words.
The trap words that fool most players
Words placed in this puzzle to make one category look like another.
- FLICKERlooks like · INVOLUNTARY ACTIONSactually · GLIMMER
An eyelid can flicker like a blink, but the intended sense is a faint showing.
- HITCHlooks like · INVOLUNTARY ACTIONSactually · KINDS OF KNOTS
A hitch can sound like a sudden bodily catch, but it is also a rope fastening.
- SETBACKlooks like · INVOLUNTARY ACTIONSactually · STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS
A setback can be called a hiccup, but here SET is the important opening.
What makes this puzzle clever
The purple group hides familiar competition units at the front of longer, unrelated words.
About this puzzle
This is the complete solution to NYT Connections puzzle #1059, originally published on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. The four categories ranged from GLIMMER (the easiest, yellow group) through STARTING WITH UNITS IN COMPETITIONS (the trickiest, purple group, which usually involves wordplay or hidden patterns).
You can browse our complete Connections archive for every past puzzle since the game launched in June 2023, or jump to today's puzzle for the latest hints.