NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Friday, November 15 (game #523)
Nice console games 
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 #523) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- PIPE
- PHRASE
- JUG
- PASSAGE
- LEAK
- LETTER
- WASTE
- WHISTLE
- NICK
- CRACK
- RECORDER
- WORD
- HOLE
- SANDS
- SENTENCE
- PUNCTURE
NYT Connections today (game #523) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Unwanted opening
- Green: Text construction
- Blue: Just put your lips together, and blow
- Purple: Blank [phrase concerning duration]
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 #523) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: FISSURE
- GREEN: ELEMENTS OF WRITING
- BLUE: INSTRUMENTS YOU BLOW INTO
- PURPLE: ___ OF TIME
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #523) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #523, are…
- YELLOW: FISSURE CRACK, HOLE, LEAK, PUNCTURE
- GREEN: ELEMENTS OF WRITING LETTER, PHRASE, SENTENCE, WORD
- BLUE: INSTRUMENTS YOU BLOW INTO JUG, PIPE, RECORDER, WHISTLE
- PURPLE: ___ OF TIME NICK, PASSAGE, SANDS, WASTE
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
Sometimes a Connections group is so simple you can’t believe that it could possibly be the answer. Take green today – ELEMENTS OF WRITING. I spotted LETTER, PHRASE, SENTENCE and WORD very early on, but hovered my finger over the submit button because it seemed too easy. In the end I decided to try it anyway – I had all four guesses left, after all – and was more surprised when they proved to be correct than if they had been wrong. Yellow was about as easy and blue only slightly more so, meaning I didn’t need to worry about the more difficult blank-format purple group.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Thursday, 14 November, game #522)
- YELLOW: DEPLETE DRAIN, EMPTY, EXHAUST, SAP
- GREEN: PLAY MUSIC WITH PASSION GROOVE, JAM, ROCK, SHRED
- BLUE: WORDS ON A RESTAURANT RECEIPT SIGNATURE, TAX, TIP, TOTAL
- PURPLE: FORMS OF SUGAR CUBE, GRAIN, POWDER, SYRUP
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.
