Below: the Melio Connections puzzle for Tuesday, June 9, 2026, a progressive hint ladder so you can work toward the solution without spoiling it, and the full color-coded grouping if you want the answer outright.
Heads up: Melio’s Connections grids are independently authored. The answers for Tuesday, June 9, 2026 below are the Melio answers, not the NYT ones.
The 16 words
CROSS
HAIL
PEPPERONI
RAIN
MUSHROOM
JAB
LEIA
VADER
ONION
SLEET
OLIVE
REY
YODA
ROUND
HOOK
SNOW
Hint ladder
Spoiler warning
Stage 1 — letter spread
Today's 16 words are spread across the alphabet. The most common starting letters are R (3×), O (2×), S (2×), H (2×).
Stage 2 — yellow theme
The yellow group's theme is "Pizza toppings". That's the easiest grouping; pick the four words that fit and you're a quarter of the way through.
Stage 3 — yellow group reveal
The four yellow words are: PEPPERONI, MUSHROOM, OLIVE, ONION.
PEPPERONIMUSHROOMOLIVEONION
Stage 4 — all four themes
The four categories, in order from easiest to hardest, are: Yellow (easiest): "Pizza toppings" · Green: "Forms of precipitation" · Blue: "Boxing terms" · Purple (trickiest): "Star Wars characters".
Stage 5 — full solution
Below is the full grouping — each row is one category.