NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, November 9

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

Recently, I checked out a demo for a game called Final Sentence. It’s a typing game that pits you against up to 60 other players in real time. If you’re too slow or make too many mistakes, your character is compromised to a permanent end, courtesy of a shadowy figure with a revolver who stands in front of you.

I got pretty close to a win on my first couple of attempts, but I was probably playing against bots to help ease me in.

Alas, I am not a fast, accurate typer. The game told me I wrote at a rate of 59 words per minute, which seems about right.

I also have a weird typing style. While my left hand rest on the keyboard normally, my right hand hovers above it and I peck at that side of the keyboard with my index and middle fingers. I don’t tend to use my pinky on my left hand either.

I never learned to touch type, and I still have to look at my keyboard pretty often, even though I know instinctively where all of the letters are. It’s probably not the best thing for someone who puts words together on screens for a living, but that’s how I’ve been typing for the better part of 30 years. I’m stuck with it now.

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 9 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!

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...

• NOODLE

• MIRROR

• CRONUT

• MUSE

• COMPACT

• CRANIUM

• REFLECT

• TWEEZERS

• PUFNSTUF

• DENSE

• BRUSH

• TIGHT

• DELIBERATE

• LUNAR

• THICK

• NAIL FILE

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

• 🟨 Yellow group — they might help you look and feel your best

• 🟩 Green group — these are oh so close

• 🟦 Blue group — one might venture to the Isle of Mull to consider these

• 🟪 Purple group — left alone, these might sing a familiar song

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 — MIRROR

• 🟩 Green group - THICK

• 🟦 Blue group — NOODLE

• 🟪 Purple group — PUFNSTUF

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Today’s Connections groups are...

• 🟨 Yellow group — personal grooming items

• 🟩 Green group - packed

• 🟦 Blue group — ponder

• 🟪 Purple group — starting with bird homophones

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 — personal grooming items (BRUSH, MIRROR, NAIL FILE, TWEEZERS)

• 🟩 Green group - packed (COMPACT, DENSE, THICK, TIGHT)

• 🟦 Blue group — ponder (DELIBERATE, MUSE, NOODLE, REFLECT)

• 🟪 Purple group — starting with bird homophones (CRANIUM, CRONUT, LUNAR, PUFNSTUF)

My first thought: What on earth is PUFNSTUF? After that, I saw that there were five beauty-related words in MIRROR, COMPACT, TWEEZERS, BRUSH and NAIL FILE, so something had to give. DENSE led me to believe that COMPACT belonged elsewhere, and thus I deduced the greens. The yellows were then sorted.

CRONUT made me think there might be some portmanteau business since that word is "croissant" and "donut" smushed together. But nothing else quite worked.

Thankfully, DELIBERATE and REFLECT led me into the blues, because I was stumped for the purples. Those turned out to be:

• CRANIUM > crane

• CRONUT > crow

• LUNAR > loon

• PUFNSTUF > puffin (a bit of a cheat, since you don't really get the "-in" sound, but sure)

It turns out that PUFNSTUF is a reference to a TV show from the '60s called H.R. Pufnstuf or a spinoff movie from 1970. I am so confused by this:

"The biggest musical fantasy since The Wizard of Oz" is a wild claim, given that Mary Poppins came out in 1964.

Anyway, default purples for me today, but I'll take that for a perfect game and a 253rd win in a row.

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. This isn't entirely a relaxing, low-key song like I'd usually recommend on a Sunday (especially given the ending), but I wanted to wait until a weekend edition of the column to share this.

"Berghain," the lead single from Rosalía's new album, features Björk and experimental musician Yves Tumor. It's an absolutely wild ride, a piece of art that folds in classical orchestration and lyrics in three languages. I haven't heard anything quite like this before. I'm spellbound.

Lux, Rosalía's latest album, dropped on Friday. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm definitely curious to check it out after this:

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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