NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Saturday, November 16 (game #524)
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 #524) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- ROGUE
- CAP
- GATOR
- SEAL
- BERET
- WOLVERINE
- COMMANDO
- FIGURE
- VOLUNTEER
- DERBY
- PILLBOX
- COVER
- PLUG
- SNAPBACK
- SOONER
- BANANAS
NYT Connections today (game #524) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Stoppers
- Green: Headgear
- Blue: Not-quite-NFL-yet athletes
- Purple: [Move/travel] blank
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 #524) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS
- GREEN: KINDS OF HATS
- BLUE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS
- PURPLE: GO ___
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #524) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #524, are…
- YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS CAP, COVER, PLUG, SEAL
- GREEN: KINDS OF HATS BERET, DERBY, PILLBOX, SNAPBACK
- BLUE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS GATOR, SOONER, VOLUNTEER, WOLVERINE
- PURPLE: GO ___ BANANAS, COMMANDO, FIGURE, ROGUE
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 1 mistake
I needed a lot of guesswork to solve today’s Connections, because two of the groups were about subjects of which I know very, very little. These were KINDS OF HATS (green) and COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS (blue), and both were way outside of my comfort zone.
Fortunately, I was able to solve purple first. This is always a good thing, because it meant I had the supposedly toughest group out of the way already. Format-wise, it was the hardest – those __blank word games can be very difficult compared to the type that are simply collections of linked things/terms. But equally, there’s no specialist knowledge required, whereas College Football… well, seeing as I’m based in the UK and don’t even really know (or care) what a quarterback is, I was never going to get that one. The NYT’s seeming obsession with putting football-related answers in Connections is really quite frustrating – especially as there’s a dedicated Sports version of the game now!
Anyway, I got purple through spotting that GO COMMANDO and GO ROGUE were both phrases, so adding BANANAS and FIGURE was not too tricky. Yellow was easy enough, too. And at that stage, I simply had to guess. I knew a PILLBOX was a hat (thanks to the Dylan song), and of course knew that BERET was too. I thought that DERBY also was, and decided to guess at the fourth. I had one failed attempt, then got lucky with SNAPBACK (no idea what that is!) and lived to fight another day.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Friday, 15 November, game #523)
- 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
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.
