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 #506) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- TIMES
- NEW
- ROMAN
- TOWN
- EAR
- FRIEND
- FELLOW
- ATTENDING
- ORIGINAL
- PERFECT
- RESIDENT
- MINT
- COUNTRYMAN
- INTERN
- UNUSED
NYT Connections today (game #506) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Untouched
- Green: Doctor doctor
- Blue: Et tu?
- Purple: Blank [four equal sides]
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 #506) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: IN PRISTINE CONDITION
- GREEN: MEDICAL ROLES
- BLUE: SINGULAR NOUN IN A FAMOUS “JULIUS CAESAR” LINE
- PURPLE: ___ SQUARE
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #506) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #506, are…
- YELLOW: IN PRISTINE CONDITION MINT, NEW, ORIGINAL, UNUSED
- GREEN: MEDICAL ROLES ATTENDING, FELLOW, INTERN, RESIDENT
- BLUE: SINGULAR NOUN IN A FAMOUS “JULIUS CAESAR” LINE COUNTRYMAN, EAR, FRIEND, ROMAN
- PURPLE: ___ SQUARE PERFECT, POCKET, TIMES, TOWN
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
One thing I love about Connections is the way in which it forces you to draw upon disparate sources of knowledge. Today, for instance, I needed to know about both William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, medical roles and, um, eBay, sort of.
Green was the first to fall: ATTENDING, FELLOW, INTERN and RESIDENT all standing out as MEDICAL ROLES, possibly because I'm rewatching the excellent comedy-drama House at the moment. Then I attacked what turned out to be the yellow group; I could see that MINT, NEW, ORIGINAL and UNUSED were all examples of something being IN PRISTINE CONDITION, the kind of descriptions you get on auction sites, but PERFECT could potentially fit there too.
Eventually I had a guess at it and got it right. The other two were harder still. I focused on COUNTRYMAN, because it's not a common word with obvious connections. The presence of ROMAN and FRIEND alerted me to that famous speech, and I added EAR to complete the set.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Monday, 28 October, game #505)
- YELLOW: AUDIO APPS AUDIBLE, PANDORA, SHAZAM, TIDAL
- GREEN: INDICATE MEAN, SIGNIFY, SPELL, SUGGEST
- BLUE: CHURCH OF ENGLAND WEDDING VOW VERBS CHERISH, HAVE, HOLD, LOVE
- PURPLE: MAGIC WORDS ABRACADABRA, PLEASE, PRESTO, THANK YOU
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.
