Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Saturday, November 22, 2025

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Saturday, November 22, 2025, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Along the way, I’ll explain the meanings of the trickier words and we’ll learn how everything fits together. Beware, there are spoilers below for November 22, NYT Connections #895! Read on if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Connections game.

If you want an easy way to come back to our Connections hints every day, bookmark this page. (If you play Wordle, Strands, or Quordle, check out our hints for those games, too.)

Below, I’ll give you some oblique hints at today’s Connections answers. And farther down the page, I’ll reveal the themes and the answers. Scroll slowly and take just the hints you need!

NYT Connections board for November 22, 2025: SPLASH, SALTY DOG, RAW, BITTER MELON, SOURSOP, DROP, SKIPPER, SWEETHEART, SWAB, CHAYOTE, PLEA, DAB, DURIAN, BIG, TAR, TOUCH.

Credit: Connections/NYT

The category types in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are spoiler-free hints that describe the type of each category in today’s Connections:

Yellow category – Synonyms.
Green category – Synonyms.
Blue category – Related nouns.
Purple category – Fill in the blank.

Hints for the themes in today’s Connections puzzle

Here are some spoiler-free hints for the groupings in today’s Connections:

Yellow category – A measurement of hot sauce or other strong flavor.
Green category – Seafarer slang terms.
Blue category – They grow near the equator.
Purple category – They go with a word referring to an agreement.

BEWARE: Spoilers follow for today’s Connections puzzle!

We’re about to give away some of the answers. Scroll slowly if you don’t want the whole thing spoiled. (The full solution is a bit further down.)

A heads up about the tricky parts

SKIPPER is a term for one who helms a boat.

DROP is a very small quantity of a liquid.

CHAYOTE is a fruit.

PLEA goes with a word to describe what a defendant might strike up with the court.

What are the categories in today’s Connections?

Yellow: LITTLE BIT
Green: SAILOR
Blue: TROPICAL FRUITS/VEGETABLES
Purple: ___ DEAL

DOUBLE BEWARE: THE SOLUTION IS BELOW

Ready to learn the answers to today’s Connections puzzle? I give them all away below.

What are the yellow words in today’s Connections?

The yellow grouping is considered to be the most straightforward. The theme for today’s yellow group is LITTLE BIT and the words are: DAB, DROP, SPLASH, TOUCH.

What are the green words in today’s Connections?

The green grouping is supposed to be the second-easiest. The theme for today’s green category is SAILOR and the words are: SALTY DOG, SKIPPER, SWAB, TAR.

What are the blue words in today’s Connections?

The blue grouping is the second-hardest. The theme for today’s blue category is TROPICAL FRUITS/VEGETABLES and the words are: BITTER MELON, CHAYOTE, DURIAN, SOURSOP.

What are the purple words in today’s Connections?

The purple grouping is considered to be the hardest. The theme for today’s purple category is ___ DEAL and the words are: BIG, PLEA, RAW, SWEETHEART.

How I solved today’s Connections

SALTY DOG is the name of a cocktail, but there was a cocktail category yesterday, so that’s probably not it.

DURIAN is a very stinky fruit. Maybe that goes with SOURSOP, BITTER MELON, and CHAYOTE, which are also types of fruits. 🟦 Oh, and vegetables.

What do you think so far?

DAB, TOUCH, SPLASH, and DROP are all words for small quantities of something. 🟨

BIG and TAR could be movie titles. I guess the movie Tár had an accent over the A, so that’s probably not it.

SWAB, SALTY DOG, and SKIPPER could all be seafaring/pirate words, maybe? Hmm. I’ll try SWEETHEART with those, too—I don’t feel confident about that at all, but I’m not seeing anything else. “One away.” Maybe TAR works instead of SWEETHEART—isn’t TAR a thing used on the decks of ships? 🟩 Oh, I guess those are all words for sailors? OK!

That leaves RAW, BIG, PLEA, and SWEETHEART. Do those all go with the word “deal”? RAW deal, BIG deal, PLEA deal, and SWEETHEART deal? SWEETHEART deal is the only one I haven’t heard of, but apparently it’s a thing. 🟪

How to play Connections

I have a full guide to playing Connections, but here’s a refresher on the rules:

First, find the Connections game either on the New York Times website or in their Games app (formerly the Crossword app). You’ll see a game board with 16 tiles, each with one word or phrase. Your job is to select a group of four tiles that have something in common. Often they are all the same type of thing (for example: RAIN, SLEET, HAIL, and SNOW are all types of wet weather) but sometimes there is wordplay involved (for example, BUCKET, GUEST, TOP TEN, and WISH are all types of lists: bucket list, guest list, and so on).

Select four items and hit the Submit button. If you guessed correctly, the category and color will be revealed. (Yellow is easiest, followed by green, then blue, then purple.) If your guess was incorrect, you’ll get a chance to try again.

You win when you’ve correctly identified all four groups. But if you make four mistakes before you finish, the game ends and the answers are revealed.

How to win Connections

The most important thing to know to win Connections is that the groupings are designed to be tricky. Expect to see overlapping groups. For example, one puzzle seemed to include six breakfast foods: BACON, EGG, PANCAKE, OMELET, WAFFLE, and CEREAL. But BACON turned out to be part of a group of painters along with CLOSE, MUNCH, and WHISTLER, and EGG was in a group of things that come by the dozen (along with JUROR, ROSE, and MONTH). So don’t hit “submit” until you’ve confirmed that your group of four contains only those four things.

If you’re stuck, another strategy is to look at the words that seem to have no connection to the others. If all that comes to mind when you see WHISTLER is the painting nicknamed “Whistler’s Mother,” you might be on to something. When I solved that one, I ended up googling whether there was a painter named Close, because Close didn’t fit any of the obvious themes, either.

Another way to win when you’re stuck is, obviously, to read a few helpful hints–which is why we share these pointers every day. Check back tomorrow for the next puzzle!