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.
NYT Connections today (game #533) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- LIGHT
- SCORE
- LAND
- SEA
- HOST
- BOW
- WIN
- YANG
- ANCHOR
- MASCULINE
- FLOCK
- DECK
- EXPANSIVE
- BRIDGE
- EARN
- CROWD
NYT Connections today (game #533) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Get
- Green: Lots of people
- Blue: STERN could be another
- Purple: Confucius would have got this one
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 #533) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: ATTAIN
- BLUE: PARTS OF A SHIP
- GREEN: LARGE GROUP
- PURPLE: ASSOCIATED PRINCIPLES IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #533) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #533, are…
- YELLOW: ATTAIN EARN, LAND, SCORE, WIN
- GREEN: LARGE GROUP CROWD, FLOCK, HOST, SEA
- BLUE: PARTS OF A SHIP ANCHOR, BOW, BRIDGE, DECK
- PURPLE: ASSOCIATED PRINCIPLES IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY EXPANSIVE, LIGHT, MASCULINE, YANG
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 1 mistake
Does it matter how you beat Connections, so long as you do? Probably not, but it is more satisfying when you get the answer right because you know what it is, rather than because you got lucky. That happened to me today with the purple group, ASSOCIATED PRINCIPLES IN CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, and it’s just as well that it did.
I’d solved blue (PARTS OF A SHIP), which was remarkably easy for that color, and yellow (ATTAIN), but had already wasted one guess on what turned out to be the green group, LARGE GROUP. For some reason I’d placed DECK with CROWD, FLOCK and HOST, when the final answer was SEA, and hadn’t yet realized what the connection was here beyond ‘groups with lots of things’, and was thinking that DECK was in there as in ‘deck of cards’. Anyway, DECK was now out of the running due to it appearing in blue, so I should really have spotted the green connection and moved on.
Instead, once burned, I looked at the other words and decided that maybe they were part of some ‘opposites’ connection: YANG (and yin), MASCULINE (and feminine), LIGHT (and dark). I wasn’t sure what EXPANSIVE was the opposite of (narrow, maybe?) but decided to include it anyway and it revealed the purple group. Great! Except obviously I’d got the connection sort of wrong. I guess they all count, though…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 24 November, game #532)
- YELLOW: CAREEN HEAVE, LURCH, PITCH, REEL
- GREEN: WHAT A NOUN MIGHT BE IDEA, PERSON, PLACE, THING
- BLUE: ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC GENRES AMBIENT, HOUSE, JUNGLE, TRANCE
- PURPLE: WORDS AFTER “ASH” BLOND, TRAY, TREE, WEDNESDAY
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.