Tuesday’s NYT Connections (May 19, 2026) is a sneaky one and Puzzle #1073 proves it immediately. The grid is packed with words that wear multiple hats: a word that looks like a job title is actually a verb for cheating. A word that sounds like a baby thing might secretly be a bestselling novel. And four words are each one letter away from becoming a fish. If you Trot into this one without a plan, you might find yourself going in circles.
Here are all 16 words from today’s grid:
Alter · Babble · Blubber · Cook · Cry · Deenie · Doctor · Forever · Founder · Fudge · Nurse · Salon · Superfudge · Surgeon · Teethe · Trot
Work through the hints below at your own pace. The full answers are waiting at the bottom whenever you’re ready.
General Hints for Today’s Categories
Not ready for full spoilers? These four nudges point you in the right direction without giving anything away.
| Color | What You’re Looking For |
| 🟡 Yellow | Picture a newborn. What are the things babies actually do in their first months of life? |
| 🟢 Green | These four words all mean the same thing: changing or adjusting something but not honestly. There’s a shady motive behind each one. |
| 🔵 Blue | A beloved American author wrote all four of these. They’re titles not descriptions, not actions. |
| 🟣 Purple | Each of these words is almost a fish. Add a single letter somewhere in the word and a fish swims out. |
Progressive Category Clues
🟡 Yellow Category Hint
You’re looking for four things that babies and infants do. These are physical or vocal actions that every new parent knows well the ones that happen at 3 AM. Think about the full range of what a newborn does in its first year: the sounds it makes, the way it feeds, the physical milestones.
Nudge: One of these words will absolutely fool you into thinking it belongs with the job titles. It doesn’t.
🟢 Green Category Hint
All four words here mean to alter or manipulate something in a dishonest way. We’re not talking about a clean, neutral edit; these all carry a sense of deception or corner-cutting. You might use one of them to describe what a bad accountant does to the books.
Watch out: At least two of these words look completely unrelated to each other on the surface. Trust the shared meaning, not the surface appearance.
🔵 Blue Category Hint
This category is four novel titles by the same famous American author, someone who wrote primarily for young adults and children, and who became one of the most-challenged (and beloved) authors in American literary history.
Nudge: If you recognize even one of these titles, you’ll likely unlock the whole group. One of them will also tempt you toward the Yellow category. Don’t fall for it.
🟣 Purple Category Hint
Today’s Purple is a letter-insertion puzzle. Each word becomes a type of fish when you slide one missing letter into it somewhere. The transformation isn’t always at the start; sometimes the letter slots into the middle.
Say each word slowly and think: what fish is hiding just one letter away? Trot, for instance add a “U” and you get Trout. Now apply that same logic to the other three.
The big trap: One of these words looks exactly like a prestigious professional title. It is not being used that way today.
NYT Connections Answers Today (Puzzle #1073, May 19, 2026)
SPOILER WARNING: Full answers directly below. This is your last chance to look away.
🟡 Yellow Things Infants Do: Babble, Cry, Nurse, Teethe
🟢 Green To Tamper or Falsify: Alter, Cook, Doctor, Fudge
🔵 Blue Judy Blume Novel Titles: Blubber, Deenie, Forever, Superfudge
🟣 Purple One Letter Away From a Fish: Founder (→ Flounder), Salon (→ Salmon), Surgeon (→ Sturgeon), Trot (→ Trout)
Strategy & Wrap-Up
The single biggest trap in today’s grid was the fake medical-titles category Doctor, Nurse, and Surgeon all scream “job title,” but not one of them belongs there: Doctor means to tamper with, Nurse is what a baby does, and Surgeon is hiding a Sturgeon. Spotting that misdirection early asking “what else could this word mean?” was the key to unlocking the whole board.
If you know your Judy Blume, Blue was the fastest free square in the puzzle: once you clock that Superfudge and Deenie are novel titles, Blubber and Forever follow immediately and Blubber’s exit from the board also removes the most tempting Yellow decoy.
See you tomorrow.
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