Today’s NYT Connections puzzle (#893 for November 20, 2025) leans into verbs, teeth, and some clever phonetics. If one or two categories are holding you up, use the hints first; the full grids are just below.
NYT Connections #893 category hints (November 20, 2025)
| Color | Difficulty | Category-style hint |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow | Easiest | How to make two things join together. |
| Green | Easy–medium | A gentle, glancing touch. |
| Blue | Medium–hard | Things you might find in a dentist’s office — more specifically, in a tooth. |
| Purple | Hardest | Think phonetically: words that sound like they could be written with just two letters. |
Note: “Brush” and “Decay” look dental, but they don’t sit in the tooth-parts set. They belong elsewhere.
Full answers for Connections #893 (by color)
| Color | Category | Words in the group | How they’re connected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow | ADHERE | Fix, Paste, Plaster, Stick | Each can mean to attach or make something cling to a surface. |
| Green | GRAZE | Brush, Kiss, Skim, Stroke | All describe a light, gentle contact rather than a firm hit. |
| Blue | PARTS OF A TOOTH | Crown, Enamel, Pulp, Root | These are anatomical components of a tooth, from outer layers to the inner core. |
| Purple | WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE TWO LETTERS | Any, Arty, Decay, Essay | Spoken aloud, they sound like pairs of letters: “N-E”, “R-T”, “D-K”, “S-A”. |
How today’s groups were designed to trip you up
The grid invites a couple of predictable missteps:
- Dental red herring: “Brush” and “Decay” feel like obvious dentistry picks. The blue group is narrower: it only accepts structural parts of a tooth, so “Crown,” “Enamel,” “Pulp,” and “Root” are the correct four.
- Verb overload: Several words read as actions. Splitting them by nuance helps: “Fix,” “Paste,” “Plaster,” “Stick” all answer “attach,” while “Brush,” “Kiss,” “Skim,” “Stroke” all describe light contact.
- Phonetic misdirection: The purple set looks random until you say them out loud: “Any” (N‑E), “Arty” (R‑T), “Decay” (D‑K), “Essay” (S‑A). Listening instead of just reading is key here.
Quick recap of today’s Connections #893
Today’s wall sits around a mid-range difficulty: two straightforward verb themes in yellow and green, a concrete anatomy set in blue once you ignore the bait, and a clever phonetic hook in purple. If you’re sharing your grid, the solved order many players will land on is:
- Yellow: Fix, Paste, Plaster, Stick
- Green: Brush, Kiss, Skim, Stroke
- Blue: Crown, Enamel, Pulp, Root
- Purple: Any, Arty, Decay, Essay
Connections refreshes daily on the New York Times Games site, so a fresh set of 16 words — and a new purple twist — arrives after midnight in your time zone.
