If you woke up on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, and felt like the New York Times was personally trying to ruin your morning coffee, you weren't alone. Puzzle #527 was one of those sessions where the words seemed to mock you. One minute you're looking at ELBOW and thinking about joints, and the next, you realize it’s sitting right next to a WHEEL.
Honestly, the November 19 2024 Connections grid was a masterclass in misdirection. It used very common, everyday words that have dozens of meanings, which is exactly how Wyna Liu (the puzzle’s editor) gets us every time. You see FACE and FINGERPRINT and think "body parts," but then you see ELBOW and EAR and suddenly you have six words for one category.
That’s the "overlap" trap. It's designed to make you burn through your four mistakes before you even find the yellow group.
The November 19 2024 Connections Breakdown
The trick to solving this specific board was separating the physical body from the digital one. While your FACE is part of your head, in this context, it was strictly about security. Once you cleared the tech hurdles, the rest of the board started to crumble—but only if you knew your Italian pantry.
Yellow: Area of Expertise
This was the most straightforward group, though "straightforward" is a relative term in this game.
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- CONCENTRATION
- FIELD
- FOCUS
- SPECIALTY
The word CONCENTRATION was the red herring here. Most people hear that and think of a chemistry lab or perhaps just the act of thinking really hard. In this grid, it was used in the academic sense—like what you’d major in at university.
Green: Ways to Unlock a Device
This is where the body part confusion lived.
- FACE
- FINGERPRINT
- PASSWORD
- PIN
If you tried to group FACE with EAR or ELBOW, you likely hit a "One Away!" message that drove you crazy. This category was purely about biometrics and traditional security codes.
Blue: Pasta Shapes
This was the "Aha!" moment for a lot of players, though EAR was a brutal inclusion.
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- EAR (Orecchiette)
- ELBOW (Macaroni)
- RIBBON (Linguine or Fettuccine)
- WHEEL (Rotelle)
Most of us know ELBOW macaroni. We’ve seen WHEEL pasta in those colorful boxes of "wagon wheels." But EAR? That’s a deep cut. It refers to orecchiette, which literally translates to "little ears." If you aren't a foodie, that blue group probably felt more like a purple one.
Purple: Double ____
As per usual, the purple category was the "fill-in-the-blank" variety.
- AGENT (Double agent)
- DRIBBLE (Double dribble)
- JEOPARDY (Double jeopardy)
- STANDARD (Double standard)
JEOPARDY was a clever inclusion because it made people think of game shows. You might have tried to link it with PASSWORD (another game show) or even WHEEL (as in Wheel of Fortune). In reality, it was just the second half of a common phrase.
Why This Specific Puzzle Was So Tricky
The reason November 19 2024 Connections stumped so many people was the "Body Part" overlap. You had EAR, FACE, FINGERPRINT, and ELBOW. That is a perfect set of four. Except it’s a fake.
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In Connections, if you see a category that looks too perfect right away, it’s almost certainly a lie. The game wants you to use those words elsewhere. On this day, those four words belonged to three different categories. That’s how the NYT builds difficulty—not by using hard words, but by using easy words in conflicting ways.
Misdirections to Watch For
- Game Shows: Jeopardy, Password, Wheel (of Fortune).
- Anatomy: Ear, Face, Fingerprint, Elbow.
- Academic: Concentration, Field, Focus.
If you fell into the game show trap, you probably wasted two guesses before realizing FIELD didn't have a show. Well, maybe "Field of Dreams," but that’s a movie, and the logic starts to get pretty thin at that point.
Lessons for Future Grids
Looking back at the November 19 2024 Connections results, the best strategy was "The Isolation Method." When you have a word like DRIBBLE, it has very few meanings outside of basketball or something a baby does. Since there were no other basketball terms (like "dunk" or "hoop"), you had to look for a phrase.
Once you find "Double Dribble," you look for other things that follow "Double." That leads you to AGENT and STANDARD. Suddenly, the board clears up.
- Check for "Fill-in-the-blank" early: Words like STANDARD or AGENT are often parts of a larger phrase.
- Ignore the obvious: If you see four body parts, wait. Look for other ways to use them first.
- Say it out loud: Sometimes hearing "Double Dribble" or "Elbow Macaroni" makes the connection click faster than just staring at the screen.
If you missed this one, don't sweat it. The pasta category alone was enough to make anyone hungry and frustrated. The best way to handle a "One Away" notification is to step back, ignore the group you just tried, and see if one of those words fits a "Double _" or a " Cake" type of phrase instead.
Next Steps for Players:
- Review the "Double" phrases mentioned above; they frequently reappear in different variations in the NYT archives.
- Familiarize yourself with common Italian pasta translations, as "little ears" or "butterflies" are favorite trivia tropes for puzzle editors.
- Before clicking submit on your next puzzle, always check if any of your four selected words could plausibly fit into a second category you haven't identified yet.