Find the links between the words to win today’s game of Connections.
getty
Each day’s game of NYT Connections goes live at midnight local time. Before your NYT Connections hints today, here’s what you missed on Wednesday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a great week so far. Please indulge me for a few paragraphs, because I am very emotional right now! (But feel free to skip past this intro if you prefer, I totally understand!)
Earlier this year, I bought two prints to hang on my wall to make my place a wee bit more Scottish. One of those prints is a diagram of James McFadden’s goal for Scotland – my favorite strike of all time until this week – against France in a World Cup qualifier in 2007. The other is a text version of Peter Martin’s famous commentary of said goal. I’m going to need to expand that collection very soon.
After an improbable 4-2 win over Denmark on Tuesday, we’re going to the men’s World Cup for the first time in 28 years. Three of our goals were absolutely sensational.
Scott McTominay just three minutes into the game with an overhead kick from above the height of his head. Kieran Tierney with a beautiful curling effort from 25 yards out to retake the lead in added time. Then, with the last kick of the game, Kenny McLean hoofing the ball into the net from the halfway line.
I need diagrams of all three of those goals on my wall (the second goal we scored was very important too, but it was a tap in). I kind of want a photo of McTominay launching himself into the air on my wall too.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
I was a young lad the last time we reached the World Cup finals. I remember watching Scotland in the opening game of that tournament against Brazil. We fought valiantly, but lost, and then didn’t make it beyond the three-game group stage. I didn’t think it would be anything like this long until we returned to the biggest show on Earth. This means so, so much.
I spoke to my dad shortly after Tuesday’s game and he couldn’t stop laughing. Qualifying for the World Cup meant a lot to him too.
The 2026 World Cup is in my current neck of the woods. There won’t be any games in Montreal, sadly, as we don’t really have a functioning stadium here. But I will try my very best to get to any games Scotland have elsewhere in Canada or Mexico. Now, it’s all eyes on December 5 for the World Cup draw.
C’mon, Scotland. Go and win the whole [expletive deleted] thing.
Anyway, before we start, I want to mention the great community we have on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. It’s a lovely, welcoming group of folks. I like to call it our cozy little corner of the internet. You’re more than welcome to join us. Don’t be shy!
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, November 20 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
NYT Connections – 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…
- ARTY
- KISS
- ENAMEL
- ESSAY
- CROWN
- DECAY
- BRUSH
- PASTE
- ANY
- SKIM
- PLASTER
- PULP
- STICK
- STROKE
- ROOT
- FIX
NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — how to hold it all together (physically, at least)
- 🟩 Green group — a soft touch, but not a pushover
- 🟦 Blue group — be careless with these, and it’ll come back to bite you
- 🟪 Purple group — like seedy, while, cagey and empty
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 — FIX
- 🟩 Green group —STROKE
- 🟦 Blue group — PULP
- 🟪 Purple group — ANY
NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — adhere
- 🟩 Green group — graze
- 🟦 Blue group — parts of a tooth
- 🟪 Purple group — words that sound like two letters
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 — adhere (FIX, PASTE, PLASTER, STICK)
- 🟩 Green group — graze (BRUSH, KISS, SKIM, STROKE)
- 🟦 Blue group — parts of a tooth (CROWN, ENAMEL, PULP, ROOT)
- 🟪 Purple group — words that sound like two letters (ANY, ARTY, DECAY, ESSAY)
Lots of tooth-related words today with ENAMEL, CROWN, DECAY, BRUSH, PASTE and ROOT all in the mix. I took one of them out of the equation quickly by getting the yellows. The greens were easy to spot too, with SKIM being my entry point.
I then tried a guess of what I figured were the four remaining tooth words: CROWN, DECAY, ROOT and ENAMEL, but I was one away from a group. Given the remaining words, PULP made the most sense as an alternative, but I wasn’t exactly sure what to swap out.
I can’t explain why switching out DECAY for PULP felt right to me, but it was. That got me the blues.
I’m annoyed I didn’t do my usual useful trick of reading the words out loud. Otherwise, I might have figured out the purple connection. Alas, I only got that group by default today. They refer to:
- ANY – N and E
- ARTY – R and T
- DECAY – D and K
- ESSAY – S and A
No perfect game today, but my streak is now up to 264 wins in a row. How did you get on today?
Here’s my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟦🟪🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
I think only the purples are worth explaining today, since the yellows and greens are synonyms and the blues are self-explanatory (except for PULP, which I just learned is the innermost layer of your tooth). But I’ve done that already, so I don’t think there’s any need for an Answers Explained column on this occasion.
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 Friday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Let’s keep this week’s unplanned but very enjoyable (to me, anyway) puppet/Muppet theme going for the recommendations… before a few extra ones 🙂
This video for the wonderfully morose “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” by LCD Soundsystem features the one and only Kermit the Frog. I adore the song, and this visual interpretation is charmingly downbeat too. And hey, it’s in New York, which is very close to where I’m sure Scotland will play in the World Cup final in July:
Okay okay, a few extra things, because I have to do it. First, here’s McFadden and Steven Thompson, also a former Scotland player, celebrating Tierney’s and McLean’s goals while commentating for the TV broadcast:
Here are the highlights of the game with those gorgeous goals. I can’t stop watching them:
And, finally, that shot of McTominay I was talking about. Never mind hanging this in the Louvre. Put a statue of it in front of Hampden Park:
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.
