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NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Monday, December 2 (game #540)

SACHIN KELKAR

December 2, 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 #540) – today’s words

NYT Connections hints for game 540 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

TRUMPET
CROQUET
CROCODILE
PAPER
ALLIGATOR
HAIR
WHAC-A-MOLE
HERALD
POLO PLAYER
BROADCAST
LAUREL
XYLOPHONE
CARPENTRY
VIDEO
SWOOSH
DECLARE

NYT Connections today (game #540) – hint #1 – group hints

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

Yellow: Tell everyone
Green: Tent-pitching is another
Blue: It’s close to your chest
Purple: Blank [thing that holds other things together]

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 #540) – hint #2 – group answers

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

YELLOW: ANNOUNCE
GREEN: THINGS INVOLVING MALLETS
BLUE: ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT
PURPLE: ___ CLIP

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

NYT Connections today (game #540) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 540 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #540, are…

YELLOW: ANNOUNCE BROADCAST, DECLARE, HERALD, TRUMPET
GREEN: THINGS INVOLVING MALLETS CARPENTRY, CROQUET, WHAC-A-MOLE, XYLOPHONE
BLUE: ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT CROCODILE, LAUREL, POLO PLAYER, SWOOSH
PURPLE: ___ CLIP ALLIGATOR, HAIR, PAPER, VIDEO

My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 mistakes

I got a bit caught up on a couple of groups today, but once I’d entangled them this wasn’t so bad.

Case in point: the green group, which I figured could be either things you hit with a hammer / need a hammer for, with CROQUET, WHAC-A-MOLE, POLO PLAYER, XYLOPHONE and CARPENTRY all qualifying.

I had too many, though, so after some internal debate decided that you don’t use a hammer to hit a polo player (unless you are a very bad person), so if it was ‘Things which involve you hitting something with a hammer’, you might have XYLOPHONE and WHAC-A-MOLE and CARPENTRY and CROQUET. I went with that in the end and it was right. Well, mostly, – the actual answer was THINGS INVOLVING MALLETS. But close enough.

Similarly, with blue I had in mind something to do with logos, but put ALLIGATOR in place of CROCODILE so lost a couple of guesses there. Clearing up yellow first helped, because it removed more answers, and left me with ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT, with CROCODILE, LAUREL, POLO PLAYER and SWOOSH – but no alligator.

That featured instead in purple, which I actually would have got even if I hadn’t solved it by default; the fairly straightforward ___ CLIP was the solution here.

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

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 1 December, game #539)

YELLOW: SANCTUARY HAVEN, PORT, RETREAT, SHELTER
GREEN FOOTBALL GEAR CLEATS, HELMET, JERSEY, PADS
BLUE: CANDY NAMES CHARMS, KINDER, WONKA, YORK
PURPLE: “FREE ___” BIRD, FALLIN’, SOLO, WILLY

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).