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.
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