Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
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Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before we get to today’s NYT Connections hints and answers, here’s what you missed on Monday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope your week is off to a great start.
I have been to exactly one baseball game in person. When I was 18, me and my immediate family came over from Scotland to visit my great aunts and uncles and their clans in Vancouver Island (an utterly beautiful place) and the Greater Toronto Area. In the latter, me, my dad and I don’t remember who else went to a Blue Jays game at the SkyDome.
In the first inning, one of the Blue Jays players hit a home run. Fireworks went off and I thought it was very exciting. But that was the only score of the whole game, and I found the rest of the game quite dull (I like fireworks, okay?).
I didn’t know much about the sport then. I still don’t, really. But this year’s World Series was super exciting and it gave me more of an appreciation for baseball. I even stayed up until 3AM to watch the end of Game 3. I had half an eye on the Jays during their playoff run (I feel compelled to root for the only Canada-based team in MLB) and then watched most of the series.
I’m starting to develop an understanding of pitching and strategies for both offensive and defensive teams. Friends who are in the know have happily explained things to me. I fear that I might be turning into a baseball guy, as if I need another sport to break my heart.
Oh, one more thing: you can’t become world champions by winning a league that’s contested in two countries. That’s not how it works.
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Tuesday, November 4 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
NYT Connections Hints – How To Play
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
NYT Connections Hints – Today’s Word List
Scroll slowly! I’ll first give you a list of today’s words, then a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll tell you the category names, followed by the full answers.
Today’s 16 words are…
- DOC
- AIR
- PILOT
- LEAF
- SHEET
- MID
- ELECTRIC
- SLIDE
- ZIP
- DRIVE
- DIRECT
- FILM
- TIFF
- COAT
- RHYTHM
- GUIDE
NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — move in the (hopefully) right direction
- 🟩 Green group — like veneer or skin
- 🟦 Blue group — descriptive bits that let systems know what’s inside
- 🟪 Purple group — lead and steel would fit in here
NYT Connections Hints – One Answer Per Group
Need some extra help?
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
- 🟨 Yellow group — GUIDE
- 🟩 Green group – FILM
- 🟦 Blue group — DOC
- 🟪 Purple group — AIR
NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — steer
- 🟩 Green group – thin layer
- 🟦 Blue group — file extensions
- 🟪 Purple group — ____ guitar
NYT Connections Answers
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — steer (DIRECT, DRIVE, GUIDE, PILOT)
- 🟩 Green group – thin layer (COAT, FILM, LEAF, SHEET)
- 🟦 Blue group — file extensions (DOC, MID, TIFF, ZIP)
- 🟪 Purple group — ____ guitar (AIR, ELECTRIC, RHYTHM, SLIDE)
This one was a bit of a chin scratcher. I did appreciate the ELECTRIC SLIDE and ZIP DRIVE (I had one of those in my very first PC as a kid) references, but I had to hit the shuffle button to start seeing any links.
DIRECT and GUIDE landed next to each other, which helped me get the yellows. Although I initially thought TIFF might be a reference to the film festival, when it ended up next to ZIP and DOC, the blues became sort of clear. It took me a moment to realize that MID is the file extension for a MIDI file.
Everything else fell into place at that point. ELECTRIC and AIR landing next to each other made the purples click in my head (my hint was a little dastardly, sorry. I had to do it). That left the greens, for which I deduced the category, for a 248th win in a row.
How did you get on this time? Here’s my grid for today:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩
The blues are the only group that perhaps need a explanation, I wager, so I won’t put together a full Answers Explained column today. They refer to file types on a computer. A .doc file is a word processing file for Microsoft Word and (as mentioned) .mid is a MIDI file that stores music data. A .tiff is an image file and .zip is a zip file that compresses a file or folder to reduce their size.
Would you like chat with some lovely folks about today’s game? Want to hang out with others who enjoy Connections and other word games? You’re more than welcome to join our community on Discord. Expect fun GIFs, photos from Connectors’ travels and all kinds of other fun stuff.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Wednesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. I absolutely love the Air Guitar World Championships. It’s all about confidence and having fun. It’s so pure. Nanami “Seven Seas” Nagura, the only three-time champion, is an incredible practitioner and has helped elevate air guitar into a true artform:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column at my newsletter, Pastimes.
