FOURSURE

September 10, 2026 Puzzle Breakdown

Four groups, four words each — here's the connections between today's words.

We kicked off today's puzzle with the easiest group on the board: four items you grab when the forecast turns sour. Raincoat, umbrella, rain boots, and poncho are all classic pieces of rain gear designed to keep you dry. Two of them even gave away the game by having the weather right in their names.

You probably live on one of these, or at least made a wrong turn onto one recently. Pine, Elm, Oak, and Walnut form our second group today as the ubiquitous foliage that city planners love to plaster on suburban street signs. They are classic American trees, but in this case, they are even more famous as addresses.

Brazil might have steered you toward countries or geography, but it belongs squarely in the snack bowl alongside almond, cashew, and pecan. Dropping the word nut from the end of brazil nut was the main trick here, making this set a bit more deceptive than your average botanical lineup. Once you saw through the map misdirection, the mixed nuts sorted themselves out.

These four are all sovereign nations in South America, though pulling them out was likely a geography test you were not expecting as the hardest set on the board. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru share a continent on the map, even if plenty of overlapping distractors were trying to send your brain elsewhere.