NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Thursday, November 21 (game #529)

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…

  • ВОВА
  • FETT
  • POLO
  • STAR
  • OXFORD
  • SPONGE
  • BUBBLE
  • PENN
  • PEARL
  • TORTE
  • CORAL
  • TEE
  • ZIT
  • JELLY
  • FLANNEL
  • TAPIOCA

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

  • Yellow: Top-half clothing type
  • Green: Ingredients (or constituents) in a certain type of drink
  • Blue: Under the sea
  • Purple: CANN is another

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: KINDS OF SHIRTS
  • GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA
  • BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY
  • PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES

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 #529, are…

  • YELLOW: KINDS OF SHIRTS FLANNEL, OXFORD, POLO, TEE
  • GREEN: SPHERES IN MILK TEA BOBA, BUBBLE, PEARL, TAPIOCA
  • BLUE: MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY CORAL, JELLY, SPONGE, STAR
  • PURPLE: STARTS OF PASTA NAMES FETT, PENN, TORTE, ZIT

  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: Fail

Okay, this was simply too difficult for me. I’m not beating myself up about it – I just wasn’t smart enough to get all four groups. Scratch that – I was only smart enough to get one group.

I solved yellow, spotting that FLANNEL and POLO were both KINDS OF SHIRTS. TEE – which until then I’d been thinking might be a homophone for TEA – was obviously another inclusion, but I wasn’t certain about the fourth. However I thought that maybe OXFORD was also an example and indeed it was. It’s probably to do with the university or something, I don’t know – but it seemed to fit (pardon the pun).

After that, though, nothing. I had several leads, and a couple were on the right lines, but I couldn’t put the correct four together in either case. Green – SPHERES IN MILK TEA – was one that I had a hunch about, given that I know TAPIOCA is an ingredient and that they are PEARLs. And of course they contain BUBBLEs, too. But I’ve heard of BOBA, so didn’t get that one.

Similarly, I figured that CORAL and SPONGE might go together in some sea-life-related group, and separately also considered JELLY and STAR as words that have FISH after them. But I didn’t put the four together, possibly because two were abbreviated and two were not. To me that feels a little unfair of the NYT, stating that they are all MARINE INVERTEBRATES, FAMILIARLY; I’m not sure I’ve ever used the word STAR to refer to a starfish, or JELLY to talk about a jellyfish.

That wouldn’t have mattered if I’d have solved one of the other groups, of course, so I won’t dwell on it. And purple was simply far too difficult, I truly had no idea there at all. I guess I’ll start building again tomorrow…

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


  • 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

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