Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s NYT Connections hints and answers, here’s what you missed on Sunday:
Hey there, Connectors! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. I’m delighted to be back in the saddle for another Monday-Friday run of this column, which is very near and dear to my heart.
There’s a thing I like to do here on Mondays: start the column off with a fun, upbeat song. Maybe something new, maybe a track from yesteryear. I would just really love for you to start the week with a smile on your face and maybe even a little boogie.
If I had known that these upbeat Monday songs and the column-ending recommendations were going to become a thing I do every single day, I would have tracked each one in a spreadsheet to hopefully avoid repeats. Thankfully, according to some very quick research, I have not used this absolute classic in this column before.
When I was but a young lad and just starting to enjoy nights on the town (uh, perhaps before I was legally supposed to), the DJ booth at a certain club had a sign in place for a few months. The sign was intended to stop people requesting a particular song, because so many revelers asked for it. I can understand why, because it’s great. It holds up well today.
That sign? It simply read “No ‘Toxic.'” It’s probably Britney Spears’ best song:
Before we start, I want to mention the great community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely, welcoming group of folks. I like to call it our cozy little corner of the internet. You’re more than welcome to join us. Don’t be shy!
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, November 15 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
NYT Connections – How To Play
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
NYT Connections Hints – Today’s Word List
Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.
Today’s 16 words are…
- TABOO
- SLAM DUNK
- GO-GETTER
- SURE THING
- SHOO-IN
- SCATTERGORIES
- OKEY-DOKE
- PROSCRIBED
- ALLEY-OOP
- ABSOLUTELY
- VERBOTEN
- FADEAWAY
- OFF-LIMITS
- LEAVENING
- FINGER ROLL
- OF COURSE
NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — or as a certain Oscar-winning actor might say, “all right, all right, all right”
- 🟩 Green group — nope, no way, uh-uh, no can do
- 🟦 Blue group — you can’t pull all of these off from downtown. Maybe in the paint?
- 🟪 Purple group — “left” is where to pay attention and also the result of following said instructions
NYT Connections Hints – One Answer Per Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — ABSOLUTELY
- 🟩 Green group — PROSCRIBED
- 🟦 Blue group — FINGER ROLL
- 🟪 Purple group — SCATTERGORIES
NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — “you bet”
- 🟩 Green group — forbidden
- 🟦 Blue group — basketball shots
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with synonyms for “scram!”
NYT Connections Answers
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — “you bet” (ABSOLUTELY, OF COURSE, OKEY-DOKE, SURE THING)
- 🟩 Green group — forbidden (OFF-LIMITS, PROSCRIBED, TABOO, VERBOTEN)
- 🟦 Blue group — basketball shots (ALLEY-OOP, FADEAWAY, FINGER ROLL, SLAM DUNK)
- 🟪 Purple group — starting with synonyms for “scram!” (GO-GETTER, LEAVENING, SCATTERGORIES, SHOO-IN)
Lots of interesting interplay going on today! At the outset I figured that SLAM DUNK could go with either ALLEY-OOP or SURE THING, but realized the latter could also be one of the “positive response” phrases. Likewise, TABOO could have gone with SCATTERGORIES in a group of board games, but seemed more likely to fit with the “banned” terms. I ended up getting the yellows, then the greens.
ALLEY-OOP, SLAM DUNK and FADEAWAY all had to be basketball shots at that point. FINGER ROLL seemed like the best fit for the fourth term, but I wasn’t sure. But that was right(!) and I got the blues.
That left the purples for the win. I presumed at that point that they all started with words meaning “to depart,” (go, leave, scatter and shoo). I sort of got that group by default, but at least I more or less figured out the connection before sealing the deal.
A regular rainbow for me today as I extended my winning streak to 261 wins. How did you get on today?
Here’s my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Alas, I have no time to put together an Answers Explained column today, but I at least flagged a couple of red herrings for you above. Still, you can bet that I will be looking up what a FINGER ROLL is later.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. One of my favorite discoveries this year is a band called Durry. The brother-sister duo make hook-filled indie rock with very relatable lyrics that are fun to sing along to. Their catchy, heart-on-the-sleeve music is a treat.
I really enjoy this one, “More Dumb.” As a chronic overthinker, I’m not afraid to say this hits a little close to home. I’m a sucker for music videos with puppets too:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
