The NYT Connections challenge sorts 16 words into four groups of four. On 15 November 2025 the grid balanced literal groupings with a few playful pairings that could mislead at first glance. Below you’ll find carefully written hints followed by the full answers.

NYT Connections Puzzle Overview: 15 November 2025

Today’s grid leaned on tidy lexical families — everyday items, punctuation, actor descriptors, and familiar “___ zone” compounds. Solvers who scanned for common modifiers and noun pairs moved fastest; others were tripped up by overlap possibilities.

NYT Connections Hints: 15 November 2025

Category 1:
  • Things you commonly add to food to change taste.
  • Can describe both aroma and intensity.
  • Often measured in small amounts in recipes.
  • A word that also names a general variety or style.
Category 2:
  • Marks used in writing to organize or separate text.
  • One of these appears in many web addresses.
  • Often signals the end of a sentence or an abbreviation.
  • Sometimes used to show a pause, range, or connection.
Category 3:
  • Labels for different ways people perform or take part in drama.
  • One term refers to a role within a story.
  • Another refers to the performance medium itself.
  • Includes approaches to training or preparation for roles.
Category 4:
  • Pairs with words to form familiar two-word phrases ending in “zone.”
  • One pairing names a mental comfort area.
  • Another names a band tied to longitude.
  • A pop-culture series is referenced by one pairing.

NYT Connections Answers: 15 November 2025

Here are the answers, grouped by category.

Category 1:
Category 2:
Category 3:
Category 4:

Conclusion & Quick Strategy Tip

Today’s puzzle felt approachable but required careful screening for exact phrasing — several words could plausibly sit in more than one pile until the right theme snapped into place. The groups rewarded both literal and associative thinking.

Quick strategy tip: scan for shared modifiers (words that commonly precede or follow others) first — they often reveal an entire group in one move.