NEW Connections Today — Hints and Answers for Friday, November 15 (Game #523)

On November 16, 2024By Littum

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be difficult, so read on if you need clues.

What are you going to do when you’re done? Why, play some more puns of course. I also have Daily Wordle Tips and Answers, Strands Tips and Answers, and Quordle Tips and Answers articles if you need help with those as well.

SPOILER ALERT: Today’s NYT Connections information is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert

Marc McLaren

NEW Connections today (game #523) – word of the day

NEW Connections tip for game 523 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NEW Connections word is…

TUBE
EXPRESSION
JUG
PASSAGE
LEAK
LETTER
WASTE
WHISTLE
NICK
CRACK
RECORDERS
WORD
HOLE
SAND
JUDGE
PUNCTURE

NEW Connections today (game #523) – tip #1 – group tip

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 (sentence regarding 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…

NEW Connections today (game #523) – tip #2 – group answer

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

YELLOW: CRACKING
GREEN: ELEMENTS OF WRITING
BLUE: INSTRUMENTS YOU BLOW
PURPLE: ___ OF TIME

Okay, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NEW Connections today (game #523) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 523 on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #523, are…

YELLOW: CRACKING ROW, HOLE, LEAK, PUNCTURE
GREEN: ELEMENTS OF WRITING LETTER, SENTENCE, SENTENCE, WORD
BLUE: INSTRUMENTS YOU BLOW JUG, PIPE, RECORDER, FLUTE
PURPLE: ___ OF TIME NICK, PASSAGE, SAND, WASTE

My assessment: Easy
My score: Perfect

Sometimes a Connections group is so simple you can’t believe it could possibly be the answer. Take Green Today – ELEMENTS OF WRITING. I discovered LETTER, SENTENCE, 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 give it a try anyway – I had all four guesses left, after all – and was more surprised when they turned out to be right than if they had been wrong. Yellow was about as easy and blue only slightly more, meaning I didn’t have to worry about the more difficult blank-format purple group.

How did you do today? Email me and let me know.

Yesterday’s NEW Connections Answers (Thursday, November 14, Game #522)

YELLOW: DONE PULL, DRAIN, 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 DICE, GRAIN, POWDER, SYRUP

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games created by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four elements that share something in common, and each group has a different degree of difficulty: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough, and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you technically don’t need to solve the last one, as you’ll be able to answer it by a process of elimination. Also, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a bit more involved than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to let you beat yourself up with tricks. For example, watch out for homophones and other puns that can hide the answers.

It can be played for free via NYT Games website on desktop or mobile.