NYT Connections today hints and answers — Thursday, November 14 (#522)

NYTimes Connections
(Image credit: Future)

Looking for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on November 14 for puzzle #522 take a dive in difficulty compared to yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.6 out of 5.

Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers. And if the hints aren't enough, you'll find all 4 answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words. Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #521, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.

Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #522. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.

Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it

Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.

If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:

  • 🟨 Yellow: Deplete
  • 🟩 Green: Play music with passion
  • 🟦 Blue: Words on a restaurant receipt
  • 🟪 Purple: Forms of sugar

These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.

Here's a larger hint: Get your guitar out, give the horse a treat, tip well at the restaurant without exhausting yourself.

Today's Connections answers

So, what are today's Connections answers for game #522?

Drumroll, please...

  • 🟨 Deplete: Drain, empty, exhaust, sap
  • 🟩 Play music with passion: Groove, jam, rock, shred
  • 🟦 Words on a restaurant receipt: Signature, tax, tip, total
  • 🟪 Forms of sugar: Cube, grain, powder, sap

I kicked the day off when I saw jam and rock, which led to shred and groove for playing music with passion.

I noticed tax and tip near each other with total not far off and realized this was referring to a receipt. Signature stuck out so we wrapped it up.

I had been stuck on sap for awhile but was thinking more of the sugary substance, not the draining definition. However, with only eight words left, it was a easier to see cube, grain, powder and syrup as forms of sugar.

Thus, I wrapped up today's puzzle with drain, empty, exhaust and sap for depleting words.

Yesterday's Connections answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #521, which had a difficulty rating of 3.2 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.

We returned to the New York Times site for today's Connections, as the Tech Guild is back to work at the Times and encouraging people to return.

I tried a sauces category with tartar, mustard, Worcestershire, and lemon. Twas a trap.

So we moved on to building add-ons because I saw wing and annex. Extension and addition were quick finds from there.

I returned to mustard as I saw canary and lemon for a yellow things in the yellow category grouping. My son loves Minions so that, for me, was a quick snag.

After that I got stuck.

I had most of the blue group with cavity, plaque and tartar. I have never heard of calculus when it comes to dentistry so it was a wild guess that got me the blue. Calculus is apparently a form of calcified tartar.

Which leaves the purple category of "Words that seem longer written than spoken." We had Colonel, Pharaoh, Wednesday and Worcestershire. I disagree with the Connections crew on the title here, it feels like a real stretch.

Scott Younker
West Coast Reporter

Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him.