You're staring at a grid of sixteen words. Your coffee is getting cold. The clock is ticking toward your morning meeting, and you’ve already burned through three mistakes. On the screen, three words are practically screaming at you: Hertz, National, and Enterprise.
It’s the classic New York Times Connections trap.
Most people see those names and immediately think, "Easy. Car rental companies." They click all three, look for a fourth like Avis or Alamo, realize there isn't one, and then panic-click a word like "Project" or "Second" just to see if it sticks.
Spoiler: It doesn’t.
The hertz national enterprise nyt connection is one of the most notorious examples of a "red herring" in the history of the NYT Games section. Specifically, it defined the puzzle on Friday, November 29, 2024. If you were playing that day, you were likely a victim of Wyna Liu’s brilliant, slightly cruel puzzle design.
The Day the Rental Car Strategy Failed
Honestly, the NYT Connections team knows exactly how our brains work. They know we look for brand clusters. When Hertz, National, and Enterprise appeared together, they weren't just random words; they were a psychological lure.
In reality, these words belonged to three entirely different categories.
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- Hertz was part of the "Units" category (Green). It sat alongside Mole, Second, and Volt.
- National was hidden in "MLB Team Member" (Blue). It shared a home with Ray, Tiger, and Twin.
- Enterprise was tucked away in "Undertaking" (Yellow). Its companions were Endeavor, Project, and Venture.
It was a total masterclass in word association baiting. You’ve got a unit of frequency, a baseball player, and a synonym for a business venture. But because they all happen to be the names of companies that rent you a Chevy Malibu at the airport, thousands of players lost their streaks that morning.
Why We Fall for the Hertz National Enterprise NYT Trap
Brain science—well, the casual kind—explains why this specific puzzle went viral among the Wordle and Connections crowd. It’s called a "False Pivot."
When you see a cluster like Hertz National Enterprise, your brain locks into a specific context. Once you are in "Travel Mode," it is incredibly hard to shift back to "Physics Mode" for Hertz or "Sports Mode" for National.
The Evolution of the Red Herring
The NYT hasn't just done this once. They’ve used names like Ford (the President vs. the car) or Apple (the fruit vs. the tech giant) to mess with us before. But the car rental trio was particularly effective because Enterprise and National are actually owned by the same parent company, Enterprise Mobility. Hertz is the big rival.
Seeing them all together felt like a legitimate industry breakdown.
In the world of competitive puzzle-solving, this is what separates the casuals from the experts. An expert sees Hertz and doesn't just think "rental car." They think "frequency," "unit," "physicist," and then "rental car."
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Breaking Down the Actual Categories
Let’s look at why those words were actually there. It’s kinda fascinating how the puzzle editors build these things.
1. The "Units" Category (Hertz)
This was the Green category, which is usually the second-easiest. Using Hertz (cycles per second) was clever because it’s a word most of us know from radio frequencies or computer monitor refresh rates, but we rarely think of it as a standalone unit in a list. Pairing it with Mole (chemistry) was the real "gotcha" because most people think of the animal first.
2. The "MLB Team Member" Category (National)
This was Blue—the second-hardest. If you aren't a baseball fan, National (as in the Washington Nationals) is a tough get. Ray (Tampa Bay), Tiger (Detroit), and Twin (Minnesota) are all singular versions of team names. It's a classic Connections trope: using the singular form of a plural noun to hide the association.
3. The "Undertaking" Category (Enterprise)
Yellow is supposed to be the easiest, but Enterprise made this one tricky. When you see Endeavor, Project, and Venture, "Enterprise" fits perfectly as a synonym for a large-scale task or business. But again, the "car rental" shadow loomed large over the whole board.
How to Beat the Next "Hertz" Situation
If you want to stop falling for these traps, you need a different strategy. Don't just click the first three related words you see.
Basically, you have to play "the missing fourth."
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If you see Hertz, National, and Enterprise, stop. Look for the fourth car rental company. Is Avis there? No. Is Alamo there? No. Is Thrifty or Dollar there? No.
If you can't find a fourth word that fits the theme perfectly, the theme is a lie. It's a red herring designed to eat your mistakes.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Puzzle
- The Shuffle is your friend: If you’re stuck on a brand association, hit the shuffle button. It breaks the visual link between the words and lets you see them as individual entities again.
- Search for secondary meanings: For every word, ask: "What else does this mean?" Hertz is a unit. National is a league. Enterprise is a spaceship or a project.
- Identify the "Loner" words: Some words, like Mole or Volt, have very few associations. Start with the words that only have one or two possible meanings and build the categories around them first.
- Wait for the "Purple": The Purple category is often the one that relies on wordplay (like "Words that follow X"). Sometimes, the words in a red herring are actually part of the most complex category on the board.
The hertz national enterprise nyt puzzle remains a legendary moment for NYT Games because it was so relatable. We’ve all been at that rental counter. We’ve all dealt with the insurance upsells. To have that real-world experience used against us in a digital puzzle was a stroke of genius.
The next time you see a group of brands on the grid, remember the great Car Rental Massacre of November 2024. Take a breath, look for the fourth word, and don't let Wyna Liu win.
To sharpen your skills, try looking at the grid today and identifying which words have at least three different definitions before you make your first move. That’s the only way to stay ahead of the curve.