NYT Connections Today – Hints and Answers for Saturday, November 16 (Game #524)
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 #524) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- VILLAIN
- Cap
- GATOR
- SEAL
- BERET
- VOLVERINE
- COMMAND
- FIGURE
- VOLUNTEER
- DERBY
- PILL BOX
- COVER
- PLUG
- SNAPBACK
- EARLIER
- BANANAS
NYT Connections Today (Game #524) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Stoppers
- Vegetable: Headgear
- Blue: Athletes who aren’t quite NFL yet
- Purple: [Move/travel] empty
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 #524) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS
- GREEN: TYPES OF HATS
- BLUE: MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM
- PURPLE: GO ___
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #524) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game #524 are…
- 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
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 1 mistake
It took a lot of guesswork to solve today’s Connections because two of the groups were about topics I know very, very little about. These were TYPES OF HATS (green) and COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS (blue), and both were way outside my comfort zone.
Luckily I was able to solve purple first. This is always a good thing as it meant I already had the supposedly toughest group out of the way. In terms of form, this was the hardest – those __blank word games can be very difficult compared to the type that are simply collections of linked things/terms. But there’s also no specialist knowledge required, while College Football… well, since I live in the UK and don’t even really know (or care) what a quarterback is, I’d never get one. The NYT’s apparent obsession with posting football-related answers in Connections is quite frustrating – especially since there’s now a special sports version of the game!
Anyway, I turned purple when I saw that GO COMMANDO and GO ROGUE were both sentences, so adding BANANAS and FIGURE wasn’t that tricky. Yellow was easy enough too. And at that stage I just had to guess. I knew a PILLBOX was a hat (thanks to Dylan’s song), and of course I knew BERET was too. I thought DERBY was too, and decided to guess the fourth. I had one failed attempt, then got lucky with SNAPBACK (no idea what that is!) and lived to fight another day.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Friday, November 15, game #523)
- YELLOW: SAVING CRACKS, HOLE, LEAK, LEAK
- GREEN: ELEMENTS OF WRITING LETTER, SENTENCE, SENTENCE, WORD
- BLUE: INSTRUMENTS YOU BLOW INTO CAN, PIPE, RECORDER, WHISTLE
- PURPLE: ___ OF TIME NICK, PASSAGE, SAND, TRASH
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.
