Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’ve had a fantastic weekend so far.

Here’s one thing that bugs me, just because I have to get it off my chest. It always annoys me when I see someone referred to as a “former” winner of an award. The BBC referred to Ronaldinho as a “former Ballon d'Or winner” the other day. I often see people who have received Academy Awards labeled as a “former” Oscar winners.

No! That’s not how words work! They are previous winners, not former. They don’t suddenly lose their award when someone else snags it the next year. It’s not the same as someone losing a boxing or MMA title — those fighters are then former champions. That is a correct use of that term.

Words matter!

I’m going to calm myself down with a cup of tea.

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to join us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, November 15 are coming right up.

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

And the level one hints for today’s Connections groups are:

Need some extra help? 

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Let’s take a look at one word for each group.

Today’s Connections word hints are…

Today’s Connections groups are...

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

I was fairly certain from the jump that OCTONION and RAPSCALLION would be purples, but I didn't see the link right away or what might go with them. As for ASTRAL and JET, I knew those were both types of plane. Again, I didn't know what else would fit.

I had to trim the options for those, and the yellows were straightforward enough to knock out. Same for the greens after I realized TRAVEL was the only thing that made sense for the fourth word.

The purples finally clicked after I took a closer look at OCTONION and RAPSCALLION. These refer to chive, onion, scallion and leek.

Although I deduced the blue category, I had never heard of a CARTESIAN plane. It took me a second to realize what an INCLINED plane was too.

A bit of a chin scratcher today. I'll gladly take my 623rd win in a row.

How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:

🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. I’ll be back over at Forbes for the Monday-Friday editions for the column. And if you haven’t subscribed to Pastimes already, definitely do that! It would be super sweet of you.

P.S. This is a laid-back song, but it’s also an upbeat one that never fails to put a smile on my face whenever I hear it. Fairground Attraction’s “Perfect” is such an earworm, largely thanks to the vocals of the fantastic Eddi Reader:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!

On weekdays, you can find this column over at Forbes. Please follow my blog there for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot!

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