Honestly, some days the New York Times just wants to see us struggle. If you sat down with your morning coffee on Thursday, November 27, and stared at a grid featuring SWELLING SEA and ROUTERS, you probably felt that familiar spark of "Wait, what?" This was game #900, a milestone of sorts, and Wyna Liu—the puzzle's mastermind—clearly didn't feel like making it a cakewalk.
Connections is funny like that. One minute you're breezing through a category about types of fruit, and the next you're trying to figure out why a woodworking tool is sitting next to a computer folder.
The November 27 Grid Breakdown
The board for nyt connections hints november 27 was a classic case of "the more you know, the more you get confused." We had words like FILES, MUSIC, DRILLS, and HURDLE. On the surface, it looks like a tech person’s desktop got spilled onto a carpentry workbench.
If you were playing this in real-time, the immediate trap was the word FILES. In any other puzzle, FILES goes with DOCUMENTS and DOWNLOADS. But here? It was a major red herring designed to make you burn through your four lives before you even realized what hit you.
Yellow Category: The Big Flood
The easiest group (Yellow) was all about abundance. Think about a literal or metaphorical wall of stuff coming at you.
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- AVALANCHE
- OUTPOURING
- TIDAL WAVE
- TORRENT
Most people snagged this one first, though TORRENT was a sneaky inclusion. Why? Because it also fits perfectly into the digital/tech theme that dominated the rest of the board. If you used TORRENT as a computer term, you likely got that dreaded "One Away!" notification.
Green Category: PC Folders
This was the "straightforward" tech group. If you’ve ever opened a Finder window or Windows Explorer, you’ve seen these.
- DESKTOP
- DOCUMENTS
- DOWNLOADS
- MUSIC
The trick here was FILES. Everyone wants to put FILES in the computer category. It feels right. It feels natural. But in this specific puzzle, FILES belonged elsewhere. Wyna Liu loves doing this—taking a word with a very common digital meaning and forcing you to use its physical, analog definition instead.
Why the Blue Category Was the Real MVP
Blue is usually "medium" difficulty, and for the November 27 puzzle, it focused on WOODWORKING TOOLS.
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- DRILLS
- FILES
- ROUTERS
- SAWS
This is where the game was won or lost. ROUTERS is the ultimate misdirect. In 2026, when we think of a router, we think of that blinking box in the corner of the living room that provides Wi-Fi. We don't necessarily think of the power tool used to hollow out a piece of wood. If you could separate the woodworking FILES and ROUTERS from the computer DOCUMENTS, you were home free.
The Purple Category: A Meta Tribute
Purple is always the "tricky" one. It usually involves wordplay, homophones, or some kind of "fill-in-the-blank" logic. For game #900, the theme was RHYMES FOR NEW YORK TIMES GAMES.
- CONFECTIONS (Rhymes with Connections)
- GRANDS (Rhymes with Strands)
- HURDLE (Rhymes with Wordle)
- SWELLING SEA (Rhymes with Spelling Bee)
SWELLING SEA is objectively hilarious. It’s so absurd that most players just left it for last. That’s actually a valid strategy, by the way. If you can solve Yellow, Green, and Blue, the Purple category just "happens" to you by default. You don't even need to understand the connection to get the win.
How to Beat the Red Herrings
If you're still kicking yourself over this one, don't worry. The "one-word-too-many" issue is a hallmark of high-level Connections puzzles. On November 27, the word FILES could have fit into three different categories if you stretched your imagination.
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The best way to handle this is to wait. Don't click. If you see five words that fit a theme, look for a second theme that needs one of those words more desperately.
Actionable Strategy for Future Puzzles
If you want to stop losing your streak to these kinds of traps, try these three things:
- The "Third Definition" Rule: When you see a word like FILES or ROUTERS, intentionally ignore the first meaning that pops into your head. If you think "computer," try to force yourself to think "tools," "office supplies," or "ranks of soldiers."
- Say the Words Out Loud: Especially for Purple categories. Sometimes the rhyme or the pun only clicks when you hear the phonetics. SWELLING SEA doesn't look like a game title, but it sounds like one.
- Shuffle Constantly: The default layout is designed to suggest connections that aren't there. Hit that shuffle button until the spatial association is broken.
Take a look at your next grid and try to find the "hidden" tools or rhymes before you commit to the obvious synonyms. You'll find that the "Medium" blue category is often the actual pivot point of the entire game. Once you crack that, the rest of the board usually collapses into place.