If you woke up this morning, opened your phone, and immediately felt personally victimized by a 4x4 grid of words, you aren't alone. The NYT Connections hints November 15 puzzle—officially Game #888—is one of those middle-of-the-road brain teasers that looks easy until you actually try to click "Submit." It’s a Saturday. You probably just want to sip your coffee and feel smart. Instead, the New York Times is asking you to differentiate between a "Period" and a "Season," and honestly, the overlap is enough to make anyone second-guess their entire vocabulary.
Connections is funny like that. Wyna Liu and the editorial team at the Times are masters of the "red herring," those words that look like they belong together but are actually part of entirely different families. Today is a classic example. You see "Period," "Season," "Stage," and "Time" and you think, Oh, these are all units of measurement or duration! Wrong. They aren't. If you fell for that, don't worry. Most of the internet did too.
Breaking Down the November 15 Grid
To get through today without burning all your mistakes, you have to look past the surface. Usually, the yellow category is a layup, but today it’s a bit more about synonyms than direct objects. If you're looking for a nudge, think about what you do to a bland soup. You don't just eat it; you make it better.
The Yellow Category: Spice Up Your Life
The yellow group today is focused on Enhancing the Taste Of. It’s pretty straightforward once you stop trying to link "Season" to the calendar.
- FLAVOR
- SALT
- SEASON
- SPICE
Notice how "Season" sits here. If you were trying to pair it with "Time" or "Period," you likely got a "one away" message. This is the classic Connections trap—using a word that has a very common noun meaning but a specific verb meaning in the context of the category.
📖 Related: FC 26 Web App: How to Master the Market Before the Game Even Launches
The Tricky Middle: Punctuation and Performers
The green and blue categories today are where things get a bit messy. Green is usually the "logical" step up from yellow, and today it deals with something we use every day but rarely think about unless we're proofreading an email.
Green Category: Dot Your I's
These are Punctuation Marks.
- COLON
- DASH
- PERIOD
- SLASH
The "Period" here is the landmine. Since it also refers to a length of time, it’s the primary red herring connecting to "Season" and "Time." If you managed to pull "Period" out of the time-related group and put it here, you’re likely halfway to a win.
Blue Category: The Spotlight
Blue is often about "types of" things, and today it’s all about the craft of acting. The Kinds of Actors category feels a little broad, but the words themselves are specific enough to stand out if you’ve spent any time watching IMDb trivia or "Inside the Actors Studio."
👉 See also: Mass Effect Andromeda Gameplay: Why It’s Actually the Best Combat in the Series
- CHARACTER
- FILM
- METHOD
- STAGE
"Method" is the giveaway here. It’s such a specific term for a style of acting that it almost forces you to look for other performance-related words.
The Purple Category: The "Aha!" Moment
Purple is the "difficult" one, but let’s be real: sometimes purple is actually easier than blue because it relies on a specific wordplay trick rather than general knowledge. Today, the theme is ___ Zone.
When you look at the remaining words, it might not click immediately. But try adding "Zone" to the end of these:
- BUFFER (Buffer Zone)
- COMFORT (Comfort Zone)
- TIME (Time Zone)
- TWILIGHT (Twilight Zone)
"Twilight" is the anchor. It’s a very distinct word. Unless the category was "Vampire Movies" (which it definitely isn't), "Twilight" almost always leads you to the "Twilight Zone."
✨ Don't miss: Marvel Rivals Emma Frost X Revolution Skin: What Most People Get Wrong
Why Today Was Harder Than It Looked
The reason people struggle with the NYT Connections hints November 15 puzzle isn't that the words are obscure. "Salt" and "Time" are basic. The difficulty lies in the semantic overlap.
In linguistics, we talk about polysemy—when a word has multiple meanings. Connections is essentially Polysemy: The Game. "Stage" could be a platform for a play (Blue) or a phase of development (Red Herring). "Slash" could be a punctuation mark (Green) or a horror subgenre. "Season" could be a time of year or a way to prep a steak.
The strategy for a grid like this is to find the most "locked-in" word. "Colon" almost has to be punctuation or anatomy. Since there are no other body parts, it’s punctuation. "Method" almost has to be acting. Once you lock those "anchor" words, the rest of the board starts to clear up like a foggy windshield.
Strategy for Future Grids
If you found yourself failing today, don't beat yourself up. Saturday puzzles are notoriously more "punny" and deceptive than the Monday through Wednesday sets.
- Don't click the first group you see. If you see four words that fit together perfectly, look for a fifth. If there is a fifth word that fits, that category is a trap.
- Use the Shuffle button. It sounds silly, but your brain gets stuck on the visual placement of the words. Shuffling them breaks the "fake" associations the editors intentionally set up.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing "Twilight" makes you think "Zone" faster than just reading it.
If you’re still stuck or just want to see how you compared to others, the Reddit "Connections" community is a goldmine for seeing which red herrings caught everyone else. Today, the "Time/Period/Season/Stage" trap was the most cited reason for a lost streak.
To keep your win streak alive for tomorrow, take a second to look at the board as a whole before committing. Usually, if you can identify the "Purple" wordplay early, the rest of the puzzle collapses into place much easier. Good luck with the next one—hopefully, it's a little less "salty" than today's grid.