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

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

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #528) – today’s words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

PLAY
BAY
STIR
CHAIN
TREE
STREAM
BARK
RUN
HOWL
GARNISH
AIR
PYRAMID
MUDDLE
LADDER
SNARL
STRAIN

NYT Connections today (game #528) – hint #1 – group hints

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

Yellow: Woof!
Green: YouTube verbs
Blue: Things you might do in a specific kind of bar
Purple: Command structures

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…

NYT Connections today (game #528) – hint #2 – group answers

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

YELLOW: SOUND LIKE A DOG
GREEN: BROADCAST, AS ONLINE MEDIA
BLUE: COCKTAIL-MAKING VERBS
PURPLE: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES, METAPHORICALLY

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

NYT Connections today (game #528) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

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

YELLOW: SOUND LIKE A DOG BARK, BAY, HOWL, SNARL
GREEN: BROADCAST, AS ONLINE MEDIA AIR, PLAY, RUN, STREAM
BLUE: COCKTAIL-MAKING VERBS GARNISH, MUDDLE, STIR, STRAIN
PURPLE: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES, METAPHORICALLY CHAIN, LADDER, PYRAMID, TREE

My rating: Moderate
My score: 1 hint

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.

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, 19 November, game #527)

YELLOW: AREA OF EXPERTISE CONCENTRATION, FIELD, FOCUS, SPECIALTY
GREEN: WAYS TO UNLOCK A DEVICE FACE, FINGERPRINT, PASSWORD, PIN
BLUE: PASTA SHAPES EAR, ELBOW, RIBBON, WHEEL
PURPLE: DOUBLE ___ AGENT, DRIBBLE, JEOPARDY, STANDARD

What is NYT Connections?

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.