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 Sunday:
Hey there, Connectors! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I’m very happy to be back with you another Monday to Friday run of this lil’ column.
If you’re new here, welcome! I usually kick things off the column with something fun or interesting I’ve learned about, or a little anecdote from yours truly. Things are a little different on Mondays, though, as I like to get things started with a fun, upbeat song. I would love for you to start the week with a smile on your face and maybe even a little boogie.
I’m a big fan of Flowerovlove, who is one of my very favorite pop girlies. She has a new song out called “Shady” and while it’s very good, I don’t think it’s quite up-tempo enough for the brief. So, I’ll go with my favorite track of hers instead, “Erase U.” It’s a great song all around, but I love that bassline with my whole heart.
Between this song and the recommendation that we’ll get to later, I’m showing two sides of my personality today:
Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Monday, November 3 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…
- SEA MONKEY
- JIGSAW PUZZLE
- BALLOON ANIMAL
- CLOWN NOSE
- WHOOPEE CUSHION
- MARASCHINO CHERRY
- FUNKY CHICKEN
- LEGO SET
- FIRE ENGINE
- JUMBO SHRIMP
- PICK-UP STICKS
- BOUNCY CASTLE
- WATER WINGS
- LITE-BRITE
- STOP SIGN
- DARK HORSE
NYT Connections Hints
And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:
- 🟨 Yellow group — like a ruby or tomato
- 🟩 Green group — these have really blown up lately
- 🟦 Blue group — I believe you can put these together (or carefully take one part at a time)
- 🟪 Purple group — right, I’m sure we can keep our streaks alive by figuring out this group, given we are intelligent beings
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 — STOP SIGN
- 🟩 Green group – WATER WINGS
- 🟦 Blue group — LITE-BRITE
- 🟪 Purple group — DARK HORSE
NYT Connections Hints – Groups/Categories
Today’s Connections groups are…
- 🟨 Yellow group — things that are red
- 🟩 Green group – things filled with air
- 🟦 Blue group — things with a lot of pieces
- 🟪 Purple group — ending with animals
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 — things that are red (CLOWN NOSE, FIRE ENGINE, MARASCHINO CHERRY, STOP SIGN)
- 🟩 Green group – things filled with air (BALLOON ANIMAL, BOUNCY CASTLE, WATER WINGS, WHOOPEE CUSHION)
- 🟦 Blue group — things with a lot of pieces (JIGSAW PUZZLE, LEGO SET, LITE-BRITE, PICK-UP STICKS)
- 🟪 Purple group — ending with animals (DARK HORSE, FUNKY CHICKEN, JUMBO SHRIMP, SEA MONKEY)
As is often the case when we have grids with phrases instead of words, I instinctively drew a sharp intake of air as soon as they popped up. But it took me less time to solve this one than it did to write out the word list.
JIGSAW PUZZLE and LEGO SET stood out to me as things you piece together. I vaguely remembered what LITE-BRITE was and I was drawn to PICK-UP STICKS though I wasn’t sure why. Nevertheless, I got the blues first.
WATER WINGS and BOUNCY CASTLE are both inflatable things, and it took but a moment to find the remaining green group members.
From there, STOP SIGN and FIRE ENGINE made the yellows clear to me. And that left the purples. FUNKY CHICKEN initially made me think there might be a group of dances, but ultimately it was pretty easy to figure out the category here.
Another fun one today, though I think I lucked out a little with LITE-BRITE and PICK-UP STICKS. I’m now just three days away from my overall win streak hitting 250 since its now at 247. Here’s my grid for today:
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟪🟪🟪🟪
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column. You can find that on my author page (I’ll update this with a direct link when I can).
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 Tuesday’s game if you need them.
P.S. The band I have not been able to shut up about this year have a new song and video and I’m very happy about that. “Tanzneid” is the latest track from party metal band Electric Callboy. Although it took a few listens for the song to land for me, I enjoy it very much. It’s loud and shouty and catchy and poppy and techno and it has all of my dopamine receptors on fire.
I dig the silly, slightly NSFW video too, with the band playing aliens who have come to earth to make people dance (the band are German and “Tanzneid” roughly translates to “dance envy”). I adore the stupid dance they do here. I am very much looking forward to doing that when I see them live for the first time:
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.