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 #527) – today’s words
Today’s NYT Connections words are…
- FOCUS
- FACE
- FIELD
- JEOPARDY
- RIBBON
- PIN
- WHEEL
- EAR
- PASSWORD
- AGENT
- CONCENTRATION
- FINGERPRINT
- STANDARD
- ELBOW
- SPECIALTY
- DRIBBLE
NYT Connections today (game #527) – hint #1 – group hints
What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Thing you’re good at
- Green: Security measure
- Blue: BOW is another
- Purple: [Twice] 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 #527) – hint #2 – group answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: AREA OF EXPERTISE
- GREEN: WAYS TO UNLOCK A DEVICE
- BLUE: PASTA SHAPES
- PURPLE: DOUBLE ___
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #527) – the answers
The answers to today’s Connections, game #527, are…
- YELLOW: AREA OF EXPERTISE CONCENTRATION, FIELD, FOCUS, SPECIALTY
- GREEN: WAYS TO UNLOCK A DEVICE FACE, FINGERPRINT, PASSWORD, PIN
- BLUE: PASTA SHAPES EAR, ELBOW, RIBBON, WHEEL
- PURPLE: DOUBLE ___ AGENT, DRIBBLE, JEOPARDY, STANDARD
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
I managed a perfect score today, but it owed a huge amount to luck. Not on the first two groups, green and yellow in that order, which were both pretty simple. Green – WAYS TO UNLOCK A DEVICE – was particularly easy given that I’m a technology journalist when not writing this column, with FACE, FINGERPRINT, PASSWORD and PIN all rather obvious.
As is so often the case, I struggled with blue and purple. I had a hunch that WHEEL and EAR might go together with a vague food theme: EAR of corn and WHEEL of cheese, maybe? RIBBON felt like it could work for PASTA, while ELBOW… well, I wasn’t sure, but you get a knuckle of beef, so maybe there was an elbow somewhere. I guessed it without expecting it to be right, but to my amazement it was – and for nearly the right reason. I’d been on the correct path with pasta, because these were all PASTA SHAPES, which was obvious after the fact. Purple was a difficult ‘blank’ variety that I wouldn’t have got, due to not knowing what DOUBLE DRIBBLE means.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Monday, 18 November, game #526)
- YELLOW: USED IN HAIR CARE COMB, DRYER, HAIRSPRAY, ROLLERS
- GREEN: MONTHLY EXPENSES GAS, INTERNET, PHONE, RENT
- BLUE: THINGS WITH SPOTS DALMATIAN, DIE, DOMINO, LADYBUG
- PURPLE: ___ CRAB FIDDLER, HERMIT, HORSESHOE, SPIDER
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.