Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers into different categories. It can be tricky, so read on if you need pointers.
What should you do when you’re done? Of course, play some word games. I also have daily Wordle Hints and Answers, Strands Hints and Answers and Quordle Hints and Answers articles if you need help with those too.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s NYT Connections is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Connections Today (Game #540) – Today’s Words
Today’s words from NYT Connections are…
- TRUMPET
- CROQUETTE
- CROCODILE
- PAPER
- ALLIGATOR
- HER
- WHAC-A-MOLE
- HERALD
- POLO PLAYER
- BROADCAST
- LAURIER
- XYLOPHONE
- CARPENTRY
- VIDEO
- SWOOSH
- TO DECLARE
NYT Connections Today (Game #540) – Hint #1 – Group Hints
What are some pointers for current NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Tell everyone
- Vegetable: Setting up tents is something else
- Blue: It’s close to your chest
- Purple: Empty (thing that holds other things together)
Need more clues?
We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four themed answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…
NYT Connections Today (Game #540) – Hint #2 – Group Answers
What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: ANNOUNCES
- GREEN: THINGS RELATED TO HAMMERS
- BLUE: ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT
- PURPLE: ___ CLAMP
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections Today (Game #540) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Connections game, game #540, are…
- YELLOW: ANNOUNCES BROADCAST, DECLARE, ANNOUNCE, TRUMPET
- GREEN: THINGS RELATED TO HAMMERS Carpentry, CROQUET, WHAC-A-MOLE, XYLOPHONE
- BLUE: ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT CROCODILE, LAUREL, POLO PLAYER, SWOOSH
- PURPLE: ___ CLAMP ALLIGATOR, HAIR, PAPER, VIDEO
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 2 mistakes
Today I got a little caught up in a few groups, but once I got them mixed up it wasn’t too bad.
An example: the green group, which I thought might be things that you hit with a hammer or that require a hammer, with CROQUET, WHAC-A-MOLE, POLO PLAYER, XYLOPHONE and CARPENTRY all eligible come.
I had too many though, so after some internal debate I decided that you don’t use a hammer to hit a polo player (unless you’re a really bad person), so if they were ‘Things where you hit something with a hammer’ ‘, maybe you have XYLOPHONE and WHAC-A-MOLE and CARPENTRY and CROQUET. In the end I agreed and it was true. Well, mostly – the actual answer was THINGS INVOLVING MALLETS. But close enough.
Likewise, with blue I had something to do with logos in mind, but I put ALLIGATOR instead of CROCODILE, so I lost a few guesses there. Clearing the yellow helped at first, as it removed more answers, and I was left with an ICON EMBROIDERED ON A POLO SHIRT, with CROCODILE, LAUREL, POLO PLAYER and SWOOSH – but no alligator.
That was in purple instead, which is actually what I would have gotten even if I hadn’t fixed it by default; the fairly simple ___ CLIP was the solution here.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Sunday, December 1, game #539)
- YELLOW: SANCTUARY HARBOR, HARBOR, RETREAT, LODGING
- GREEN FOOTBALL GEAR SHOES, HELMET, JERSEY, PADS
- BLUE: CANDY NAMES CHARMS, KINDER, WONKA, YORK
- PURPLE: “FREE ___” BIRD, FALLIN’, SOLO, WILLY
What is NYT Connections?
NYT Connections is one of the New York Times’ increasingly popular word games. It challenges you to find groups of four items that have something in common, and each group has a different level of difficulty: green is easy, yellow is a little harder, blue is often quite tough, and purple is usually very difficult.
On the plus side, you technically don’t have to solve the last question, because you can answer it by a process of elimination. Plus, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you some breathing room.
It’s a bit more complicated than something like Wordle, though, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For example, beware of homophones and other word games that can obscure the answers.
It is playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.