NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Monday, October 21 (game #498)

8 hours ago 5

NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert

NYT Connections today (game #498) - today's words

NYT Connections hints for game 498 on a purple background

Today's NYT Connections words are…

WHIRL
DRAW
NAVY
LIVER
CAR
KIDNEY
HOOK
DRIVE
PINTO
PULL
NEUTRAL
DEAD
LOW
MUNG
GRAB
REVERSE

NYT Connections today (game #498) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

Yellow: Full of 'em
Green: Bring towards you
Blue: No manual required
Purple: Blank[thing you swim in]

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #498) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: KINDS OF BEANS
GREEN: ATTRACT
BLUE: AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS
PURPLE: ___POOL

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #498) - the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 498 on a purple background

The answers to today's Connections, game #498, are…

YELLOW: KINDS OF BEANS KIDNEY, MUNG, NAVY, PINTO
GREEN: ATTRACT DRAW, GRAB, HOOK, PULL
BLUE: AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS DRIVE, LOW, NEUTRAL, REVERSE
PURPLE: ___POOL CAR, DEAD, LIVER, WHIRL

My rating: Moderate
My score: 1 mistake

I'm not sure whether others will find this quite as difficult as I did, but I made an early mistake and was slightly worried about my streak – which is admittedly only at six, but hey you have to take what you can in this game.

The problem for me was that the easiest group, KINDS OF BEANS, contained one I didn't know, NAVY; in the UK, where I am, these are instead called haricot beans. I spotted that PINTO, KIDNEY and MUNG all clearly went together but guessed LIVER as the fourth (I think I was confused with LIMA) and when that was wrong didn't really know what to do next.

So I moved on, and found the green ATTRACT group, then the actually-fairly-easy blue AUTOMATIC GEAR SHIFTER POSITIONS group. Revisiting 'beans' with a smaller pool of words I vaguely recalled a mention of NAVY beans in some movie or other so played that and got it right. That meant I didn't need to solve the purple __POOL group, which is just as well as I had no clue about that one.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Sunday, 20 October, game #497)

GREEN: NOISY DISTURBANCE CLATTER, RACKET, ROW, RUCKUS
YELLOW: BIT OF NEWSPAPER WRITING ARTICLE, COLUMN, FEATURE, STORY
BLUE: TABLE TENNIS NEEDS BALL, NET, PADDLE, TABLE
PURPLE: HOMOPHONES OF COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS BUTT, FORE, OAR, SEW

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).

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