The New York Times’ Connections puzzle for November 28, #901, has been released, and many players are seeking help with today’s groupings. This article provides hints and full answers to guide you through the challenge. The puzzle involves identifying four categories of four words each, testing both vocabulary and pattern recognition skills.
Understanding the Puzzle’s Difficulty
Connections is designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with Tuesday’s puzzle often being the most challenging. The game’s logic isn’t always intuitive, sometimes relying on obscure connections or double meanings. This makes the puzzle frustrating but satisfying when solved.
The NYT now offers a Connections Bot, which analyzes your attempts and provides a numeric score. This feature caters to players who enjoy tracking their performance and comparing strategies.
Hints for Each Category
The puzzle is organized into four color-coded groups: Yellow (easiest), Green, Blue, and Purple (hardest). Here are hints to guide you:
- Yellow: Relates to appropriateness.
- Green: Concerns success in competition.
- Blue: Refers to components of an electric instrument.
- Purple: Pertains to the characteristics of spoken language.
Today’s Connections Answers: Revealed
Here are the complete answers for the November 28 Connections puzzle:
- Yellow Group: The words fair, just, proper, and right all represent fitting or appropriate concepts.
- Green Group: The words beat, best, take, and worst all relate to achieving victory over an opponent.
- Blue Group: The words fret, peg, pickup, and string are all parts of an electric guitar.
- Purple Group: The words intonation, loudness, rhythm, and stress are all phonetic elements of speech.
Past Tough Puzzles: Patterns to Watch
Some past Connections puzzles have been notoriously difficult. Analyzing these can reveal patterns in how the game’s creators design challenges:
- Puzzle #5: Combined seemingly unrelated items (“mood,” “record,” “table,” “volleyball”) that could all be “set.”
- Puzzle #4: Used vague phrases (“egg,” “juror,” “month,” “rose”) linked by the idea of “one in a dozen.”
- Puzzle #3: Featured streets from popular media (“Elm,” “Fear,” “Jump,” “Sesame”).
- Puzzle #2: Connected words through the phrase “power ___” (“nap,” “plant,” “Ranger,” “trip”).
- Puzzle #1: Included items that “can run” (“candidate,” “faucet,” “mascara,” “nose”).
These puzzles demonstrate the game’s tendency to use abstract or metaphorical connections, requiring players to think outside conventional categories.
Solving Connections requires not just vocabulary, but also lateral thinking. By understanding these patterns, players can improve their ability to decode the game’s logic and increase their success rate.
