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 #498) - today's words
Today's NYT Connections words are…
- WHIRL
- DRAW
- NAVY
- LIVER
- CAR
- KIDNEY
- HOOK
- DRIVE
- PINTO
- PULL
- NEUTRAL
- DEAD
- LOW
- MUNG
- GRAB
- REVERSE
NYT Connections today (game #498) - hint #1 - group hints
What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?
- Yellow: Full of 'em
- Green: Bring towards you
- Blue: No manual required
- Purple: Blank[thing you swim in]
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 #498) - hint #2 - group answers
What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?
- YELLOW: KINDS OF BEANS
- GREEN: ATTRACT
- BLUE: AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS
- PURPLE: ___POOL
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Connections today (game #498) - the answers
The answers to today's Connections, game #498, are…
- YELLOW: KINDS OF BEANS KIDNEY, MUNG, NAVY, PINTO
- GREEN: ATTRACT DRAW, GRAB, HOOK, PULL
- BLUE: AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS DRIVE, LOW, NEUTRAL, REVERSE
- PURPLE: ___POOL CAR, DEAD, LIVER, WHIRL
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: 1 mistake
I'm not sure whether others will find this quite as difficult as I did, but I made an early mistake and was slightly worried about my streak – which is admittedly only at six, but hey you have to take what you can in this game.
The problem for me was that the easiest group, KINDS OF BEANS, contained one I didn't know, NAVY; in the UK, where I am, these are instead called haricot beans. I spotted that PINTO, KIDNEY and MUNG all clearly went together but guessed LIVER as the fourth (I think I was confused with LIMA) and when that was wrong didn't really know what to do next.
So I moved on, and found the green ATTRACT group, then the actually-fairly-easy blue AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS group. Revisiting 'beans' with a smaller pool of words I vaguely recalled a mention of NAVY beans in some movie or other so played that and got it right. That meant I didn't need to solve the purple __POOL group, which is just as well as I had no clue about that one.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 20 October, game #497)
- GREEN: NOISY DISTURBANCE CLATTER, RACKET, ROW, RUCKUS
- YELLOW: BIT OF NEWSPAPER WRITING ARTICLE, COLUMN, FEATURE, STORY
- BLUE: TABLE TENNIS NEEDS BALL, NET, PADDLE, TABLE
- PURPLE: HOMOPHONES OF COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS BUTT, FORE, OAR, SEW
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.
