NYT Connections Puzzle Overview: 16 November 2025

Today’s grid blended literal categories (things you’d see on a board game) with descriptive clusters (words meaning ordinary or commonplace) and visual items (striped patterns and logos). Solvers who alternated between meaning and imagery likely found different groups clicking into place at different times.

NYT Connections Hints: 16 November 2025

Category 1:
  • Think of words that describe a way of doing something.
  • Synonyms you’d use for a plan or manner.
  • Often used to describe a practitioner's guiding set of ideas.
  • Four words that can all be synonyms of "approach" in different contexts.
Category 2:
  • Words meaning ordinary or unremarkable.
  • Think "not exciting" or "everyday."
  • Terms you might use to describe a mundane task.
  • Four near-synonyms pointing to lack of novelty.
Category 3:
  • Visual pattern or markings that include parallel lines.
  • Includes an animal known for its stripes.
  • One is a famous corporate mark made of horizontal bars.
  • Think items or designs you'd call "striped" or featuring stripes.
Category 4:
  • Words you’d find on spaces of a classic American board game.
  • Includes property-related terms and a common penalty/fee space.
  • Parking and transport-related square types appear here.
  • All four are literal labels from the game board.

NYT Connections Answers: 16 November 2025

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

Conclusion & Quick Strategy Tip

Today’s puzzle was refreshingly literal — once you noticed the visual/brand cluster and the Monopoly vocabulary, the remaining synonym groups snapped into place. Quick strategy tip: when one cluster looks image-based, set those aside and test the remaining words for shared meanings before guessing.