NYT Connections Today – Hints and Answers for Sunday, November 17 (Game #525)
Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need pointers.
What should you do when you’re done? Of course, play some word games. I also have daily Wordle Hints and Answers, Strands Hints and Answers and Quordle Hints and Answers articles if you need help with those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s NYT Connections is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Game #525) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- APOLOGY
- QUOTE
- ASSOCIATION
- CONTRACTION
- WINDING
- UNION
- OWNERS
- SLINKY
- PROPOSAL
- SNUG
- PRAYER
- COMPETITION
- GUILD
- DUB
- FOOT
- TIGHT
NYT Connections Today (Game #525) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Group
- Vegetable: Tight, like clothes
- Blue: Reasons to get low
- Purple: Meanings behind a grammatical sign
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four themed answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #525) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: ALLIANCE
- GREEN: TIGHT FITTING
- BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE CAN KNEEL
- PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPH CAN INDICATE
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #525) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #525 are…
- YELLOW: ALLIANCE ASSOCIATION, GUILD, LEAGUE, UNION
- GREEN: TIGHT FITTING STICKY, TIGHT, SLINKY, SNUG
- BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE CAN KNEEL Apologies, dubbing, prayer, proposal
- PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPH CAN INDICATE CONTRACTION, FOOT, OWNER, QUOTE
- My rating: Difficult
- My score: 2 mistakes
This was a tough task. I started well enough, with yellow (ALLIANCE) not causing me any problems. But then I got stuck.
I could see several possible directions – for example SLEEK and SLINKY, or CLINDY and POSSESSIVE, or even POSSESSIVE and CONTRACTION and QUOTATION – but not a complete group. I tried a few wild guesses and got them wrong both times, then returned to the last of those possible solutions; POSSESSIVE, CONTRACTION and QUOTATION are all grammatical terms, so what could the third be? And then it dawned on me: they weren’t terms as such, they were all examples of WHAT AN APOSTROPH CAN INDICATE, with FOOT the fourth.
That got me purple, with two guesses left. My best example was the proposal, the prayer, and the apology, which I thought were all examples of something you could offer—but I didn’t know what the fourth was. So I looked at the other words and realized that READY, SLEEK, SLINKY, and SNUG were all examples of things that were CLOSE FIT; I really should have gotten that sooner.
That left standard blue, with the answer apparently being OCCASIONS WHERE ONE CAN KNEEL, with DUBBING being the fourth. And I have no idea why, because I don’t know any context that fits. If you can enlighten me, please do so!
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, November 16, game #524)
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS COVER, COVER, PLUG, CONNECTION
- GREEN: TYPES OF HATS BERET, DERBY, PILL BOX, SNAPBACK
- BLUE: MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM GATOR, FASTER, VOLUNTEER, WOLVERINE
- PURPLE: GO ___ BANANAS, COMMANDO, FIGURE, ROGUE
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the New York Times’ increasingly popular word games. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is slightly harder, blue is often quite hard, and purple is usually very hard.
On the plus side, you technically don’t have to solve the last question because you can answer it by a process of elimination. Plus, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you some breathing room.
It’s a bit more complicated than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, beware of homophones and other word games that can obscure the answers.
It is playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
