NYT Connections Answers Today Nov. 10, 2026: Hints and Solutions for Puzzle 1248 With a Vowel-Heavy Twist

NEW YORK — The New York Times' Connections puzzle on Tuesday was a feast of long, unusual words, mixing noisy fusses, literary terms and historical jobs, with a hardest group that rewarded careful letter counting.

Connections asks players to sort 16 words into four groups of four, and Tuesday's groups use shared meanings, uses of language, historical jobs and repeated letters.

Hints come first, followed by the full answers.

Today's word list

The 16 words are ABRACADABRA, APOTHECARY, BEEKEEPER, BROUHAHA, FOOFARAW, HABERDASHER, HULLABALOO, HYPERBOLE, INVISIBILITY, KERFUFFLE, METONYMY, ONOMATOPOEIA, OXYMORON, PROTOZOOLOGY, SCRIVENER and WAINWRIGHT.

Watch out for decoys

FOOFARAW and APOTHECARY have more than one meaning, so players should check both definitions and spelling before committing to a set.

The bigger challenge is that many of the words look unusual. That makes it tempting to group the strangest-looking entries together, but the purple group depends on letter patterns rather than meaning.

Hints for each group

TechRadar offered these clues. Yellow is a loud fuss, green is wordsmithery, blue is job titles of yesteryear and purple is the same letter a lot.

Forbes had its own playful hints. It described the yellow group as lots of fuss, perhaps about nothing of real significance; green as tools used in tomes; blue as jobs that perhaps didn't work out in the long run; and purple as words that could cost you on "Wheel of Fortune." That purple clue is a nod to the game show, where contestants must pay to buy vowels.

Today's categories

The four groups are HUBBUB, LITERARY DEVICES, OLD-TIMEY OCCUPATIONS and WORDS WITH FIVE OF ONE VOWEL.

Today's Connections answers

Spoiler warning: the full solutions follow.

The yellow group is BROUHAHA, FOOFARAW, HULLABALOO and KERFUFFLE. Each describes a noisy commotion or fuss.

The green group is HYPERBOLE, METONYMY, ONOMATOPOEIA and OXYMORON. These are figures of speech familiar from English classes.

The blue group is APOTHECARY, HABERDASHER, SCRIVENER and WAINWRIGHT. An apothecary prepared medicines, a haberdasher sold sewing goods or men's clothing, a scrivener copied documents, and a wainwright built wagons.

The purple group is ABRACADABRA, BEEKEEPER, INVISIBILITY and PROTOZOOLOGY. Each word contains the same vowel five times: five A's in ABRACADABRA, five E's in BEEKEEPER, five I's in INVISIBILITY and five O's in PROTOZOOLOGY.

Strategy tips

The literary devices group was likely the easiest place to start. Forbes' puzzle writer said the green group was immediately clear.

Once the literary terms and noisy fusses are sorted, the remaining eight words split by a simple test: count the vowels. The four old professions have mixed vowels, while the purple words repeat a single vowel five times.

About the game

The game resets daily at midnight local time, giving players 24 hours to complete each puzzle. Connections No. 1249 arrives Wednesday.