NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Wednesday, November 20 (game #528)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?

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…

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What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today’s Connections, game #528, are…

I seem to be making quite the habit of guessing groups with one connection in mind, only to get it right even though the answers were all linked by something different. I had two of those today: purple and blue, although in both cases I was halfway there.

Taking purple first, I put PYRAMID, LADDER and CHAIN together as things that humans might form into. I tried MUDDLE along with them – don’t judge me, it was just a guess – and when that was wrong turned to TREE, which proved to be correct. I was on the right lines: the actual connection was ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES, METAPHORICALLY.

For blue, I had a feeling that GARNISH, STIR and STRAIN went together as things you did to food, and thought maybe MUDDLE was also connected; do you muddle a salad maybe? Maybe not! But it was right anyway, though the connection was actually COCKTAIL-MAKING VERBS. Lucky me.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

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.