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NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, November 21 (game #529)

Reporters Desk

November 21, 2024

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Jump To:

Today’s words
Hint #1: Group hints
Hint #2: Group answers
Today’s answers

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert

Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He’s authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today’s Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He’s also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.

NYT Connections today (game #529) – today’s words

NYT Connections hints for game 529 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

ВОВА
FETT
POLO
STAR
OXFORD
SPONGE
BUBBLE
PENN
PEARL
TORTE
CORAL
TEE
ZIT
JELLY
FLANNEL
TAPIOCA

NYT Connections today (game #529) – hint #1 – group hints

What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?

Yellow: Top-half clothing type
Green: Ingredients (or constituents) in a certain type of drink
Blue: Under the sea
Purple: CANN is another

Need more clues?

We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #529) – hint #2 – group answers

What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: KINDS OF SHIRTS
GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA
BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY
PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #529) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 529 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #529, are…

YELLOW: KINDS OF SHIRTS FLANNEL, OXFORD, POLO, TEE
GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA BOBA, BUBBLE, PEARL, TAPIOCA
BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY CORAL, JELLY, SPONGE, STAR
PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES FETT, PENN, TORTE, ZIT

My rating: Hard
My score: Fail

Okay, this was simply too difficult for me. I’m not beating myself up about it – I just wasn’t smart enough to get all four groups. Scratch that – I was only smart enough to get one group.

I solved yellow, spotting that FLANNEL and POLO were both KINDS OF SHIRTS. TEE – which until then I’d been thinking might be a homophone for TEA – was obviously another inclusion, but I wasn’t certain about the fourth. However I thought that maybe OXFORD was also an example and indeed it was. It’s probably to do with the university or something, I don’t know – but it seemed to fit (pardon the pun).

After that, though, nothing. I had several leads, and a couple were on the right lines, but I couldn’t put the correct four together in either case. Green – SPHERES IN MILK TEA – was one that I had a hunch about, given that I know TAPIOCA is an ingredient and that they are PEARLs. And of course they contain BUBBLEs, too. But I’ve heard of BOBA, so didn’t get that one.

Similarly, I figured that CORAL and SPONGE might go together in some sea-life-related group, and separately also considered JELLY and STAR as words that have FISH after them. But I didn’t put the four together, possibly because two were abbreviated and two were not. To me that feels a little unfair of the NYT, stating that they are all MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY; I’m not sure I’ve ever used the word STAR to refer to a starfish, or JELLY to talk about a jellyfish.

That wouldn’t have mattered if I’d have solved one of the other groups, of course, so I won’t dwell on it. And purple was simply far too difficult, I truly had no idea there at all. I guess I’ll start building again tomorrow…

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 20 November, game #528)

YELLOW: SOUND LIKE A DOG BARK, BAY, HOWL, SNARL
GREEN: BROADCAST, AS ONLINE MEDIA AIR, PLAY, RUN, STREAM
BLUE: COCKTAIL-MAKING VERBS GARNISH, MUDDLE, STIR, STRAIN
PURPLE: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES, METAPHORICALLY CHAIN, LADDER, PYRAMID, TREE

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

TOPICS

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He’s also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).