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Spoiler warning: This is the historical NYT Connections puzzle for Wednesday, November 5, 2025, game #878. Start with the hints below if you are still solving; the full groups follow.
Hints for Connections #878
- Yellow: These words can mean to ruin something or do it badly.
- Green: Four weapons from a classic murder-mystery board game.
- Blue: Surnames of well-known soul singers.
- Purple: Add the same four-letter word before each entry to make a compound word.
NYT Connections answers for November 5, 2025
The full word bank was KNIGHT, COAT, BUTCHER, BAKER, FLACK, KNIFE, CANDLESTICK, MAKER, FRANKLIN, FOREST, BOW, BLOW, SPOIL, WRENCH, BOTCH, and ROPE.
Yellow: Make a hash of
BLOW, BOTCH, BUTCHER, SPOIL — each can mean to ruin something or perform a task badly.
Green: Weapons in the game Clue
CANDLESTICK, KNIFE, ROPE, WRENCH.
Blue: Iconic soul singers
BAKER, FLACK, FRANKLIN, KNIGHT — the surnames of Anita Baker, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight.
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Purple: RAIN___
BOW, COAT, FOREST, MAKER — combine each with “rain” to make rainbow, raincoat, rainforest, and rainmaker.
How Connections works
Connections presents 16 entries to sort into four groups of four based on a shared connection. The entries can be words, phrases, symbols, or numbers. Forbes reported that players could make three incorrect guesses before a fourth wrong guess ended the game. The color labels above identify this puzzle’s groups; guides differ on how to describe the colors’ difficulty order, so they should not be treated as a universal ranking. (Forbes; TechRadar)
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