NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Sunday, November 17 (game #525)

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.

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

  • APOLOGY
  • QUOTATION
  • ASSOCIATION
  • CONTRACTION
  • CLINGY
  • UNION
  • POSSESSIVE
  • SLINKY
  • PROPOSAL
  • SNUG
  • PRAYER
  • LEAGUE
  • GUILD
  • DUBBING
  • FOOT
  • SLEEK

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

  • Yellow: Grouping
  • Green: Tight, as clothing
  • Blue: Reasons to get down low
  • Purple: Meanings behind a grammatical mark

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…

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

  • YELLOW: ALLIANCE
  • GREEN: CLOSE-FITTING
  • BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL
  • PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE

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

The answers to today’s Connections, game #525, are…

  • YELLOW: ALLIANCE ASSOCIATION, GUILD, LEAGUE, UNION
  • GREEN: CLOSE-FITTING CLINGY, SLEEK, SLINKY, SNUG
  • BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL APOLOGY, DUBBING, PRAYER, PROPOSAL
  • PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE CONTRACTION, FOOT, POSSESSIVE, QUOTATION

  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: 2 mistakes

This was a tough one. I started off well enough, with yellow (ALLIANCE) not causing me any problems. But after that I got stuck.

I could see several possible directions – for instance SLEEK and SLINKY, or CLINGY and POSSESSIVE, or indeed POSSESSIVE and CONTRACTION and QUOTATION – but no complete group. I tried a couple of wild guesses and got them wrong both times, then returned to the last of those possibles; POSSESSIVE, CONTRACTION and QUOTATION are all grammar terms, so what could the third be? And then it dawned on me – they weren’t terms as such, they were all examples of WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE, with FOOT the fourth.

That gave me purple, with two guesses remaining. My best lead was on PROPOSAL, PRAYER and APOLOGY, which I figured were all examples of something you might offer up – but I didn’t know what the fourth was. So I looked at the other words and realized that CLINGY, SLEEK, SLINKY and SNUG were all examples of things that were CLOSE-FITTING; I really should have got that sooner.

That left blue by default, where the answer was apparently OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL, with DUBBING being the fourth. And I have no idea whatsoever about why, because I don’t know of any context that fits. If you can enlighten me, please do!

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


  • YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS CAP, COVER, PLUG, SEAL
  • GREEN: KINDS OF HATS BERET, DERBY, PILLBOX, SNAPBACK
  • BLUE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS GATOR, SOONER, VOLUNTEER, WOLVERINE
  • PURPLE: GO ___ BANANAS, COMMANDO, FIGURE, ROGUE

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