Waking up and staring at a grid of sixteen words can feel like a personal attack before you've even had coffee. It's the daily ritual. The New York Times Connections puzzle has a way of making you feel like a genius one second and a total amateur the next. Honestly, the Connections answers Nov 18 set really leans into that "Wait, what?" feeling.
You see words that seem to belong together. You click. You get that little shake of the screen that says "One Away." It’s frustrating. But that is exactly why the game works. It preys on your first instinct. Today’s puzzle is particularly devious because it plays with categories that overlap in the most annoying way possible.
The Real Challenge of the November 18 Puzzle
Wyna Liu, the editor of the game, has a specific style. She loves homophones. She loves words that can be both a noun and a verb. For the Connections answers Nov 18, you have to look past the surface definitions. If you see a word and think "that's definitely a type of fruit," you're probably being lured into a trap.
Most people start by looking for the Yellow group. It’s meant to be the "easy" one. But even the easiest category today has a bit of a sting. If you aren't careful, you’ll burn through your four mistakes before you’ve even identified a single group. The trick is to find the words that don't fit anywhere else first.
Breaking Down the Categories for Nov 18
Let’s talk about the specific groupings for today. We have a mix of physical objects, synonyms for being tired, and some very specific wordplay.
The first group you likely spotted involves the idea of Exhaustion. We’ve all been there. You finish a long week and you feel... spent. Or drained. Or tapped. This group is the "Straightforward" one (Yellow). The words include DRAINED, EMPTY, SPENT, and TAPPED. It’s a clean set. No weird tricks here, just four ways to say you’ve got nothing left in the tank.
✨ Don't miss: Finding Every Bubbul Gem: Why the Map of Caves TOTK Actually Matters
Then it gets harder.
The Green category is all about Types of Shoes. Sorta. It’s actually about Parts of a Shoe. This is a classic Connections move where they take a common object and break it down into its components. You’re looking for EYELET, SOLE, TONGUE, and UPPER. If you’re a sneakerhead, this was probably your first grab. If you aren't, "Upper" might have thrown you for a loop. It’s the part of the shoe that covers the top of the foot.
The Blue and Purple Mind Games
Now, the Blue group is where the "One Away" messages usually start happening. This category is Kinds of Pins. Think about it. You use pins for clothes, for hair, for wrestling. The words are BOBBY, COTTER, ROLLING, and SAFETY.
Did you see "Rolling" and think of "Rolling Stone" or "Rolling Hills"? That’s the trap. It’s a rolling pin. Like for dough. It feels out of place because the others are small metal things, but the connection holds.
Finally, we hit the Purple group. The dreaded Purple.
🔗 Read more: Playing A Link to the Past Switch: Why It Still Hits Different Today
Purple is almost always about a "Blank [Word]" or "[Word] Blank" structure. For the Connections answers Nov 18, the theme is Double ______.
- CROSS (Double Cross)
- DATE (Double Date)
- FEATURE (Double Feature)
- SPACE (Double Space)
It’s a solid list. "Double Space" is what your high school English teacher always demanded for essays. "Double Feature" is a nostalgic trip to the movies. When you see them all together, it makes perfect sense, but when they are scattered among words like "Sole" and "Empty," your brain struggles to make the link.
Why This Puzzle Trips People Up
The overlap is the killer. Look at "Tapped" and "Sole." If you were thinking about dancing, you might try to put them together. Tap dancing? Sole of a shoe? It’s a logical path that leads nowhere.
There's also "Safety" and "Cross." Maybe you thought of "Safety Cross" or something related to traffic? That’s where the game wins. It creates these "Red Herrings" that look like categories but are actually just loose threads designed to make you waste your turns.
Strategies for Future Puzzles
If you struggled with today's grid, don't sweat it. The key to winning consistently isn't just knowing a lot of words. It's about patience.
💡 You might also like: Plants vs Zombies Xbox One: Why Garden Warfare Still Slaps Years Later
Don't click until you have all four words for a group. If you only have three, keep looking. Usually, that fourth word is hiding in another group you haven't identified yet.
Also, look for the Purple category first. Even if you can't solve it, identifying the "wordplay" words helps clear the board. Words that seem "odd" or don't have a clear synonym—like "Bobby" or "Cotter"—are usually your biggest clues. They are so specific that they have to belong to a very particular theme.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Game
Stop rushing. The NYT doesn't give extra points for finishing in thirty seconds.
- Say the words out loud. Sometimes hearing the word "Safety" helps you realize it's part of "Safety Pin" rather than "Safety First."
- Shuffle the board. The "Shuffle" button is there for a reason. Your brain gets stuck on the physical proximity of words. If "Cross" and "Date" are next to each other, you’ll keep trying to connect them. Move them around.
- Identify the "Multi-Use" words. Today, "Spent" and "Drained" are clearly synonyms. But "Tongue" could be a body part or a shoe part. Focus on those double-meaning words first.
Solving the Connections answers Nov 18 requires a mix of vocabulary and lateral thinking. If you got it, nice work. If not, there's always tomorrow's grid to obsess over. Use these strategies to approach the next one with a bit more skepticism toward your first impressions.