Spoiler alert: The November 9, 2025, NYT Connections puzzle was #882. Its four groups were Personal Grooming Items, Packed, Ponder, and Starting with Bird Homophones. Hints come first below; the complete answers and the purple group’s wordplay follow.
Hints for Connections #882
If you want a nudge before seeing the solution, these clues move from broad to revealing:
- Look for personal-care tools.
- One group describes things packed tightly together.
- Another group contains words meaning to think.
- For the trickiest group, listen for bird names at the beginnings of the words.
November 9 Connections answers
Yellow: Personal Grooming Items
- BRUSH
- MIRROR
- NAIL FILE
- TWEEZERS
Green: Packed
- COMPACT
- DENSE
- THICK
- TIGHT
Blue: Ponder
- DELIBERATE
- MUSE
- NOODLE
- REFLECT
Purple: Starting with Bird Homophones
- CRANIUM
- CRONUT
- LUNAR
- PUFNSTUF
Why the purple group works
The first sounds of the four words resemble bird names: CRANIUM begins with a sound like crane, CRONUT with crone, LUNAR with loon, and PUFNSTUF with puffin. The connection is sound-based rather than meaning-based. Two words can pull attention toward other groups: CRANIUM may suggest thinking, while COMPACT can suggest a grooming item because a compact may contain a mirror.
What to know about playing or replaying
Connections gives players 16 words to sort into four groups of four, colored yellow, green, blue, and purple from easiest to trickiest. The New York Times says each puzzle has one solution, though some words may appear to fit more than one category. Its Help Center says the daily game releases at midnight in the player’s timezone and can be played through the NYT Games app, nytimes.com/games, nytimes.com/theathletic, or the NYT News app. The game is free to play; signing in to an NYT account lets progress carry across devices or platforms.
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The NYT Connections archive reaches back to June 12, 2023, for eligible All Access and Games subscribers, so this November 9, 2025 puzzle is within its stated date range. Archive play can affect some stats but not streaks, and a completed archive puzzle cannot be replayed.
Quick Recap
Rank #2
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