NYT Connections Hints Today: Answers & Clues for November 25, 2025

I have been looking at the puzzle of today long as I would prefer admitting. Puzzle #898 also misled me initially, I just stared at those words picturing their mockery over me. The point is that, after breaking the pattern, I got all the pieces of the puzzle. You know, at this moment you are stuck. I am dissecting precisely what was successful with me.

What You’re Dealing With Today

The current challenge is approximately 2.3 out of 5, and it does not seem much on paper. There are traps all right, though; some of them are slip-shams. The puzzle prefers to perplex you with words that seem to be related yet, they are not. I nearly plumped together the wrong four two or three times before I caught myself.

That is my strategy: press that shuffle button. Seriously, do it three times. The design is also an attempt to deceive your eyes to believe in false designs. The breaks that manipulation of visuality.

Beginning with the simplest Category (Yellow)

This one’s your safe bet. Consider the terms which refer to a not very important or minor thing. You see, the sort of things you would say were a nothing and nothing to write home about.

What I first saw in this group was that these are the phrases that we use every single day. When it is not important or sort of lame, what is it? That’s your entry point.

The language is informal and ordinary -as you might actually say when characterizing an inexpensive product or an operation under the counter.

The Visual Memory Test (Green)

Here type is a reward type that you gain by being aware of the surrounding world. Close your eyes for a second. What color has transferred these things?

This is what I suggest: consider some of the things that are inherently this color, both in nature and pop culture. He/she has a toy brand everybody knows. Another one’s a bird. It even has a flower in it.

Unless you are not into nostalgia, this group should strike a chord with you in case you ever went to a zoo. It is literally the connection that you can see looking at every item.

Where It Gets Tricky (Blue)

This is where I was stuck solid, five minutes. The action, or rather what you do is connected in this association.

Conceive literal and semi-real. What can you do to an itch? But what of being lost, confused? And there is what to lottery tickets and what happens to the old vinyl records.

My discovery: I got my turnaround moment when I would get to stop thinking of what these things are but what you can do with them. The change of attitude opened all the doors.

The Real Challenge (Purple)

Almost cheated me out of this category, this. It is not about the meaning of the words, the trick. It has to do with the way they are organized.

Examine the start-point of every phrase. Notice anything? All of them begin with a positive and upbeat word. Still that is not the entire story–you must look at them as a complete phrase and not a word.

One’s a fast-food menu item. The playground equipment of another. We have breakfast stuff and a kind of a hand shake here.

This is a pro-tip: Read one word by word aloud and play pretend of which phrase it is. When you speak, your brain is able to draw dots.

Quick Strategy That Saved Me

Once I was lost I employed the so-called overstuffed category trick. I was able to identify five words that appeared to be closely related and presented each word in relation to the rest. The latter brought me back to the gospel: Which word was properly elsewhere–and immediately two categories were opened.

I also took a screen shot of the puzzle and added it to my notes so I would scribble in my notes and that way you test the combinations without using your four allows errors.

What This Puzzle Teaches You

The current game is ideal in knowing how Connections hones your skills of tackling problems in unorthodox ways. The purple color, in particular, will train you to not see what is right on the surface but to examine the linguistic structure.

The more you practice, the more you will be aware of thought patterns that will be adopted by the editor. These ludicrous associations begin to appear to you, such as the ones that words possess conceal hidden similarities, or the one that phrases possess smug similarities.

My Final Take

Puzzle number number 898 is not the most difficult one in the world, but it contains enough tricks so as to make you guess. The secret is to be able to remain open-minded. Where the evident grouping fails, then look in a different direction, namely, structure, action, or visual aspects.

Still confused up to these clues, there is nothing wrong with that. There are occasions when you need to go out and take a five-minute walk and then reappear with fresh eyes. A dozen times or more I have.

The goodness of Connections is that each and every puzzle educates you about something new with regard to pattern recognition. Today’s puzzle? It made me clear that what matters is not what the words say sometimes it is how the words are constructed or what you do with them.

Now shake that board once more and take another swab. You’ve got this.

Read:

The NYT Strands Hints Today Check Answers-22 November 2025.