NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, November 21 (game #529)
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 #529) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- ВОВА
- FETT
- POLO
- STAR
- OXFORD
- SPONGE
- BUBBLE
- PENN
- PEARL
- TORTE
- CORAL
- TEE
- ZIT
- JELLY
- FLANNEL
- TAPIOCA
NYT Connections today (game #529) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Top-half clothing type
- Green: Ingredients (or constituents) in a certain type of drink
- Blue: Under the sea
- Purple: CANN is another
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 #529) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: KINDS OF SHIRTS
- GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA
- BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY
- PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #529) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #529, are…
- YELLOW: KINDS OF SHIRTS FLANNEL, OXFORD, POLO, TEE
- GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA BOBA, BUBBLE, PEARL, TAPIOCA
- BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY CORAL, JELLY, SPONGE, STAR
- PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES FETT, PENN, TORTE, ZIT
- My rating: Hard
- My score: Fail
Okay, this was simply too difficult for me. I’m not beating myself up about it – I just wasn’t smart enough to get all four groups. Scratch that – I was only smart enough to get one group.
I solved yellow, spotting that FLANNEL and POLO were both KINDS OF SHIRTS. TEE – which until then I’d been thinking might be a homophone for TEA – was obviously another inclusion, but I wasn’t certain about the fourth. However I thought that maybe OXFORD was also an example and indeed it was. It’s probably to do with the university or something, I don’t know – but it seemed to fit (pardon the pun).
After that, though, nothing. I had several leads, and a couple were on the right lines, but I couldn’t put the correct four together in either case. Green – SPHERES IN MILK TEA – was one that I had a hunch about, given that I know TAPIOCA is an ingredient and that they are PEARLs. And of course they contain BUBBLEs, too. But I’ve heard of BOBA, so didn’t get that one.
Similarly, I figured that CORAL and SPONGE might go together in some sea-life-related group, and separately also considered JELLY and STAR as words that have FISH after them. But I didn’t put the four together, possibly because two were abbreviated and two were not. To me that feels a little unfair of the NYT, stating that they are all MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY; I’m not sure I’ve ever used the word STAR to refer to a starfish, or JELLY to talk about a jellyfish.
That wouldn’t have mattered if I’d have solved one of the other groups, of course, so I won’t dwell on it. And purple was simply far too difficult, I truly had no idea there at all. I guess I’ll start building again tomorrow…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 20 November, game #528)
- YELLOW: SOUND LIKE A DOG BARK, BAY, HOWL, SNARL
- GREEN: BROADCAST, AS ONLINE MEDIA AIR, PLAY, RUN, STREAM
- BLUE: COCKTAIL-MAKING VERBS GARNISH, MUDDLE, STIR, STRAIN
- PURPLE: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES, METAPHORICALLY CHAIN, LADDER, PYRAMID, TREE
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.
