Today’s puzzle might be a tad confusing, but don’t worry, I won’t STEER you wrong. If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Thursday, November 16, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for November 16, NYT Connections #158! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.
If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past hints there as well, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle.
Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!
Does today’s Connections game require any special knowledge?
Nope, pretty straightforward today.
Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle
Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:
Yellow category - Poppycock!
Green category - Set a course.
Blue category - Wildlife.
Purple category - Big and/or notable.
Does today’s Connections game involve any wordplay?
There’s a fill-in-the-blank, and also a grouping where the groups are united by something about their spelling and usage. For that one, though, you may be still able to figure out the group based on the dictionary meanings.
Ready to hear the answers? Keep scrolling if you want a little more help.
BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!
We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)
What are the ambiguous words in today’s Connections?
To BUFFALO can mean to confuse someone, thus giving us phrases like “Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo,” which roughly means “bison from Buffalo, New York confuse bison from Buffalo, New York.” Anyway, today it’s just referring to the animal.
HOGWASH is either slop you feed to pigs, or NONSENSE.
A SEAL can be an animal, but today you should think in terms of a SEAL on an envelope, or better yet, one of those big government SEALs with all the metaphors and symbols.
A STEER can be a castrated BULL, raised either for meat or to become a working OX. Or it can just mean to GUIDE a vehicle or a group of people toward a destination.
What are the categories in today’s Connections?
Yellow: BALDERDASH
Green: HELM
Blue: SINGLE/PLURAL ANIMALS
Purple: GREAT ____
DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW
Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.
What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?
The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is BALDERDASH and the words are: BULL, HOGWASH, NONSENSE, ROT.
What are the green words in today’s Connections?
The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is HELM and the words are: DIRECT, GUIDE, LEAD, STEER.
What are the blue words in today’s Connections?
The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is SINGLE/PLURAL ANIMALS and the words are: BUFFALO, DEER, FISH, MOOSE.
What are the purple words in today’s Connections?
The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is GREAT ____ and the words are: DANE, LAKE, SEAL, WHITE.
How I solved today’s Connections
One of my favorite words makes an appearance here—HOGWASH. (I was heartbroken to find there’s no good clip on YouTube of George the Janitor, backstage at the muppet show, responding to the line “Don’t give me that HOGWASH!” by holding up a bucket and saying “Well, what do you want me to do with it?”)
So obviously HOGWASH goes with NONSENSE, BULL, and (I take a stab) ROT. 🟨 I narrowly avoided including BUFFALO in that group, even though it is closely related, with Merriam-Webster listing its synonyms as “bewilder, baffle; also, bamboozle.”
DANE is either going to be a person or dog from Denmark; I went with the latter. If we have a great DANE here, how about a great LAKE, a great SEAL, and a great WHITE? 🟪
STEER, BUFFALO, DEER, and MOOSE are all ruminants, but that grouping is one away! I guess we have to go with FISH instead 🟦 because clearly the last group is about STEERing someone where you want them to go, along with LEAD, DIRECT, and GUIDE. 🟩
Connections Puzzle #158 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟩🟦🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩
How to play Connections
I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:
First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Crossword app. You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).
Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.
You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.
How to win Connections
The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.
If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.
Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!