NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, November 23

(That shoulder shimmy kills me.)

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

I’m pretty beat, so instead of a regular intro (sorry), I’m just going to share a video that has made me very happy over the last few days. As if I weren’t already delighted enough:

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 23 are coming right up.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

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...

• JFK

• QUEEN

• WARREN

• WALL STREET

• LAX

• LODGE

• EASY

• MIA

• DEN

• TROUPER

• NIXON

• LOOSE

• GIMME

• SLACK

• PLATOON

• BURROW

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — not too strict

• 🟩 Green group — where floofs, furballs and others may lay their heads

• 🟦 Blue group — like w, snowden and alexander

• 🟪 Purple group — references to hits by an artist stemming from an appropriately placed nation in Scandinavia

One Word For Each Connections Group

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…

• 🟨 Yellow group — LOOSE

• 🟩 Green group — DEN

• 🟦 Blue group — JFK

• 🟪 Purple group — GIMME

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — lenient

• 🟩 Green group — animal homes

• 🟦 Blue group — Oliver Stone movies

• 🟪 Purple group — second words in titles of ABBA hits

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

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...

• 🟨 Yellow group — lenient (EASY, LAX, LOOSE, SLACK)

• 🟩 Green group — animal homes (BURROW, DEN, LODGE, WARREN)

• 🟦 Blue group — Oliver Stone movies (JFK, NIXON, PLATOON, WALL STREET)

• 🟪 Purple group — second words in titles of ABBA hits (GIMME, MIA, QUEEN, TROUPER)

JFK and LAX could have been a part of group of airports, but PLATOON made it clear to me that we had a group of Oliver Stone movies. That got me the blues.

WARREN and QUEEN could have been a part of a group of Elizabeths, but nah. WARREN went with the rest of the animal homes to take care of the greens.

From there, TROUPER and MIA gave the game away for the purples, and I had the yellow connection figured out too. The purples refer to:

"Gimme GIMME Gimme"

"Mamma MIA"

"Dancing QUEEN"

"Super TROUPER"

Three utterly brilliant songs, and one I don’t like quite as much at the end there. Despite it mentioning Glasgow. The city in which Scotland just booked their ticket to the 2026 men’s World Cup.

(Was my purple hint too obtuse? I struggled to think of anything else that wasn't too easy and I got stuck on the idea of Sweden being the second of the three Scandinavian countries when you see them on a map.)

I can see the blues and the purples causing trouble for some folks. There was a US presidents red herring too with JFK and NIXON in the mix as well.

A tricky little edition today, but I'm happy to extend my winning streak to 267. How did you get on today?

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. I was talking with a friend the other day about a game we both really enjoyed this year. I won’t say which, but there’s a weapon in it called Incubus. Remembering about that led me to listening to some Incubus, a band I loved very much as a young man and still rather enjoy now. Here’s one of their more laid-back songs. I think “Drive” is actually their biggest hit to date:

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

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