NYT Connections Today – Hints and Answers for Sunday, December 1 (Game #539)
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 #539) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- SOLO
- JERSEY
- WILLY
- WONKA
- YORK
- PORT
- FRIENDLY
- BIRD
- PADS
- CHARMS
- PORT
- HELMET
- RESORT
- TRAPS
- CLAMPS
- SHELTER
NYT Connections Today (Game #539) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Somewhere safe
- Vegetable: Changing room package
- Blue: Sweet treats
- Purple: [not costing anything] 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 #539) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: SANCTUARY
- GREEN FOOTBALL GEAR
- BLUE: CANDY NAMES
- PURPLE: “FREE ___”
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #539) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, game #539, are…
- YELLOW: SANCTUARY PORT, HARBOR, RETURN, LODGING
- GREEN FOOTBALL GEAR SHOES, HELMET, JERSEY, PADS
- BLUE: CANDY NAMES CHARMS, KINDER, WONKA, YORK
- PURPLE: “FREE ___” BIRD, FALLIN’, SOLO, WILLY
- My rating: Difficult
- My score: 2 mistakes
It’s now part of my Connections routine that I look for anything related to one of three sports: American football, baseball, or occasionally basketball. Playing for the crowd there, NYT, well done. Anyway, as predictable as it is, it did give me access to this game after I had already solved the very easy yellow group, SANCTUARY.
The football group was simply FOOTBALL GEAR, with CLEATS, HELMET, JERSEY, PADS, which allowed me to choose eight more and place them in two collections. But what were they? Well, of course I only needed one, which was a good thing since I never would have gotten one.
The one I didn’t get was blue – CANDY NAMES, because I haven’t heard of any other than KINDER (which is available outside the US). WONKA was obviously known, but I thought it was just fictional. The other two… no idea.
The one I did get was “FREE ___”, mainly because FREE WILLY was one of the few connections I could make with that word, and then I realized that FREE BIRD and FREE FALLIN’ also worked. I wasn’t sure about SOLO, but it sounded familiar and turned out to be a 2018 movie that I haven’t seen but have heard of. Difficult today, but I got there in the end.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, November 30, game #538)
- YELLOW: DANCE STYLES JAZZ, MODERN, SWING, TAP
- GREEN: STEAL ELEVATOR, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE
- BLUE: PERFORM WELL ACE, CRUSH, NAIL, ROCK
- PURPLE: ___BALL PLACES CURVE, FAST, KNUCKLE, SCREW
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.
