A coaster is a small, flat piece of material, often decorative, placed under a glass or cup to protect the surface beneath it.
Quick answer
A coaster, in the sense relevant here, is a small, flat piece of material, often decorative, that is placed under a glass or cup to protect the surface beneath it. That definition is directly supported by the supplied Cambridge Dictionary result.
In the September 20, 2026 Connections puzzle, COASTER appears with BLU-RAY, SAND DOLLAR, and TORTILLA in the exact category ROUND FLAT THINGS. The definition supplies the “flat” part directly. The verified category identifies the round physical form intended for the puzzle entry.
The term appears on the full board in the September 20, 2026 Connections puzzle.
Meaning and usage context
The relevant noun refers to an item placed beneath drinkware. Cambridge’s wording preserves useful qualifications: the piece is often decorative, so decoration is possible rather than required; it is used with a glass or cup; and its purpose in that definition is to protect a surface.
The supplied search evidence also indicates that dictionaries record multiple senses of coaster. Dictionary.com summarizes a broader sense as “a person or thing that coasts,” while Collins says the noun has different senses in British and American English. Those snippets establish that context matters, but they do not replace the drinkware sense selected by this puzzle’s category.
The supplied evidence does not provide a specific etymology for the drinkware meaning, so no origin story is needed to understand this use. The supported context is practical and grammatical: it is a countable noun naming a small, flat item.
Natural examples
These illustrative examples keep the relevant sense clear:
- “Please put the cold glass on a coaster.”
- “A coaster was already sitting beneath the cup.”
- “They chose a decorative coaster for each place setting.”
- “In the word puzzle, COASTER was grouped by shape rather than by what it protects.”
The indefinite article in “a coaster” shows ordinary countable-noun use. The phrases “on a coaster” and “beneath the cup” also make the physical relationship easy to understand. Nothing in these examples requires every coaster to have the same design or material.
A common mistake
For this board, the main mistake is following another possible sense of COASTER instead of identifying the exact physical object that fits ROUND FLAT THINGS. The supplied dictionary results confirm that the word can have more than one noun sense, but the group members determine which referent is relevant.
Another mistake would be to narrow the official category to “things placed under cups.” That statement fits COASTER but fails BLU-RAY, SAND DOLLAR, and TORTILLA. The correct relationship remains the broad source wording ROUND FLAT THINGS. Function helps define coaster; shape explains its membership in this particular group.
Coaster in Connections
In the September 20, 2026 solved Connections board, COASTER joins BLU-RAY, SAND DOLLAR, and TORTILLA. The official relationship concerns a shared physical description, not shared use. COASTER protects a surface in the dictionary definition, but that functional detail is not the rule connecting all four words.
This distinction is valuable when solving: a full definition can identify the intended object, while only one part of that definition may matter to the category. Here, recognizing a small, flat piece gets the solver close; checking the official companions confirms the broader round-and-flat classification.
How the group logic works
Test every proposed rule against all four entries. “Flat things” accommodates COASTER but is incomplete because the official category also specifies roundness. “Drink accessories” is too narrow and excludes the other three. ROUND FLAT THINGS preserves exactly what the source states without adding a common material, location, or function.
The remaining board confirms the partition. BLUEGRASS, BOURBON, DERBY, and FRIED CHICKEN are associated with Kentucky. BLADE, NEAR DARK, SINNERS, and TWILIGHT are vampire movies. HOVER, SKATE, SNOW, and SURF fill the blank before BOARDS YOU RIDE ON. The September 20, 2026 Connections group explanation displays those four relationships together.