February 25, 2026

NYT Connections Hint - February 25, 2026

Heyyy, word nerds! ☕️ I nearly spilled my coffee when DECLAN popped up—my cousin Declan’s birthday is next week, so naturally I shouted "It’s a sign!" at my laptop (my cat was not impressed). Today’s grid twisted my brain like a pretzel: movie icons masquerading as surnames, chemistry-class flashbacks, and enough caregiving warmth to knit a scarf. Ready to unpack the familial mischief together?

Word Explanations

  • KEY

    • Tiny metal puzzle-piece that opens doors AND unlocks metaphorical success. My first apartment key was attached to a bottle-opener ring—priorities, right?

  • NAPKIN

    • A humble square of paper that rescues shirts everywhere. Fun fact: "napkin" comes from nappe (tablecloth) plus -kin (little)—so it’s basically a baby tablecloth. I still fold mine into origami cranes at diners when the service is slow.

  • COOK

    • Chef, superhero of the stove, or in this puzzle’s case—Captain James Cook, the 18th-century explorer who mapped more Pacific islands than I’ve even Googled. Side note: his journals are basically foodie Yelp before Yelp.

  • BABY

    • Either an infant human or the act of pampering something outrageously. I’ll admit I baby my houseplants with classical music; my fiddle-leaf fig is a straight-up diva.

  • PRINCIPAL

    • Top dog of the school—equal parts administrator, professional fire-drill orchestrator, and hallway monitor. Mine could smell dress-code violations from three corridors away.

  • DEAN

    • Smoking-jacket icon James Dean OR your friendly college dean who approved your late-drop petition with a sigh. Both ooze coolness, just different decades. I still want a Rebel Without a Cause poster in my office.

  • NURSE

    • Real-life guardian angel in scrubs. My aunt’s a NICU nurse; the stories she tells could melt your heart faster than chocolate in a glovebox. Also, one of the few jobs where "comfort and joy" is in the job description.

  • MOTHER

    • Matriarch, mama, the original multitasker. Also a verb: to mother something is to worry about it so others don’t have to. I currently "mother" my sourdough starter; its name is Gerald.

  • BASIC

    • Nothing fancy, just the vanilla ice cream of vocabulary. Still, life runs on basics—plain T-shirts, scrambled eggs, that one friend who always brings chips to game night.

  • ALKALINE

    • Opposite of acidic on the pH scale, but in middle school it was just "the stuff that turns litmus paper Crayola-blue." Fun trivia: firefly lanterns contain alkaline chemicals for that glow. Nature’s glowstick!

  • HARDEN

    • To toughen up—literally or emotionally (hello, sports coaches). Also surname to basketball superstar James Harden, whose beard has its own zip code. I can’t grow facial hair like that; I’d just look like a confused cactus.

  • FOSTER

    • Foster homes, foster dreams, Foster’s hollywood—okay, that last one is just my love of vintage clothing. But fostering is planting seeds you may never sit under, and that’s quietly heroic.

  • DIATRIBE

    • A spicy, no-holds-barred rant—basically a Twitter thread before Twitter. The word comes from Greek diatribe "a wearing away of time," which is exactly what my uncle’s political diatribes do at Thanksgiving.

  • PRIMARY

    • Primary colors, primary elections, primary school—everything foundational starts here. Remember mixing red and yellow paint to get orange? That was basically my first chemistry experiment, courtesy of Mrs. Larson’s art class.

  • BROWN

    • Color of chocolate, coffee, and James Brown’s cape—three essentials of life. Bonus: Brown University’s mascot is a bear named Bruno. I feel like that’s something trivia night will ask someday.

  • DECLAN

    • An Irish name meaning "full of goodness." Fun coincidence: Declan literally contains "clan," so even inside the name he’s bringing the family vibe. My cousin will never let me forget I didn’t spot him first in the grid.

Theme Hints

  1. CARE FOR

    • Channel your inner caretaker: coddle, cradle, comfort. All that’s missing is the soothing cup of tea.

  2. ELEMENTARY

    • No advanced degree needed—these are your ABCs of synonyms. Think classroom posters and chalk-dust memories.

  3. JAMESES

    • If you squint, this quartet feels like a starting-five of famous fellas—except they all borrowed the same first-name jersey.

  4. ENDING IN FAMILY WORDS

    • Don’t look them in the face—check their rearview. Each one has a relative hitching a ride at the very end.

Answers Explanation

Click to reveal answers!

  1. CARE FOR

    :BABY,FOSTER,MOTHER,NURSE

    • Nothing says tender loving care like this lineup. You mother someone with gentle nagging, nurse them back with soup, foster dreams (or kids), and—okay—maybe you only baby a creaky knee or a new phone, but the vibe is pure nurturer energy. While solving, I pictured a cozy montage: blankets, thermometers, lullabies, maybe a guilty-pleasure rom-com. These words are basically a group hug in lexical form.

  2. ELEMENTARY

    :BASIC,KEY,PRIMARY,PRINCIPAL

    • Take every synonym you learned in second-grade vocab: basic, key, primary, principal. They all scream "fundamental" so loudly my inner teacher started clapping erasers. I still remember Mrs. Donnelly writing PRINCIPAL on the board in gigantic letters—and yes, she was definitely my pal, just like the old spelling trick promises. Grouping these felt like stacking alphabet blocks—satisfying, nostalgic, perfectly square.

  3. JAMESES

    :BROWN,COOK,DEAN,HARDEN

    • These four all look like surnames—James Brown, James Cook, James Dean, James Harden—but it’s the first name that unites them. I kept thinking "Brown, Cook, Dean… hey, that’s a law firm!" then Harden popped in and my inner basketball nerd squealed. Turns out James is the ultimate everyman name; parents have been gifting it to future funk legends, explorers, Hollywood rebels, and MVP hoopers for centuries. Once you see the shared first name, the swagger just clicks.

  4. ENDING IN FAMILY WORDS

    :ALKALINE,DECLAN,DIATRIBE,NAPKIN

    • Here’s the sly trick: each word ends with a hidden family member. ALKALINE sneaks in "-line" (sounds like Lynn), DIATRIBE drops "-tribe," NAPKIN tucks in "-kin" (Old English for family), and DECLAN… well, Declan is cousin Declan. Once my brain flipped to "what’s tagging along at the tail?" the clan appeared like relatives jumping out of a surprise party.