On November 18 the NYT Connections grid mixed surface-level puns and tidy lexical endings into four neat groups of four — here are carefully worded hints and the full answers below.
November 18’s Connections served up 16 words that split into four clean groups of four. Today’s mix leaned on short fruit/food names, famous surnames, lexical endings that hide smaller location words, and a playful “funny” cluster—below you’ll find hints followed by the full answers.
NYT Connections Puzzle Overview: November 18
Today’s grid combined straightforward category members (kinds of tomato, famous surnames) with a couple of trickier entries that rely on endings or double meanings. Solvers who scanned for common suffixes and celebrity last names moved fastest.
NYT Connections Hints: November 18
Category 1:
- Think words you might hear around a comedy show or a chaotic party.
- Two entries name people who perform or play pranks.
- One is a kind of audible reaction to humor.
- Another can describe uproar or chaos.
Category 2:
- These are compact tomato varieties often used in salads.
- Two share names with small fruits.
- One is an Italian paste/ Roma-style tomato.
- Picture tiny, bite-size tomatoes.
Category 3:
- All four are surnames of performers who won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
- One is a short, punchy two-syllable name; another ends with -son.
- These are last names familiar from red-carpet headlines.
- Think Halle, Emma, Hilary — and one more winner.
Category 4:
- Each answer is a longer word that ends with a short synonym for “location.”
- The final syllable in each is a standalone place-word.
- Remove the ending and you still have a valid word.
- Look for endings like place/point/site/spot (spoken as short words).
NYT Connections Answers: November 18
Here are the answers, grouped by category.
Category 1:
Category 2:
Category 3:
Category 4:
Conclusion & Quick Strategy Tip
This puzzle balanced pop-culture recognition with neat morphological tricks — not overly fiendish, but satisfying if you noticed surname winners and common place-endings. Quick strategy tip: scan first for obvious proper names and short suffixes (spot/point/site/place) to lock in easy groups.
