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Here are some hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1,260 for Saturday, Nov. 30.

Here are some hints — and the answers — for Connections: Sports Edition No. 68 for Saturday, Nov. 30.

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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.

NYT Connections today (game #538) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• ROCK
• PALM
• FAST
• MODERN
• NAIL
• SWING
• SCREW
• KNUCKLE
• POCKET
• ACE
• TAP
• SWIPE
• CURVE
• JAZZ
• LIFT
• CRUSH

NYT Connections today (game #538) - hint #1 - group hints

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

• Yellow: Shake your moves
• Green: Take without permission
• Blue: Make a big success of it
• Purple: From the mound

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 #538) - hint #2 - group answers

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

• YELLOW: DANCE STYLES
• GREEN: STEAL
• BLUE: PERFORM WELL ON
• PURPLE: ___BALL PITCHES

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

NYT Connections today (game #538) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #538, are…

• YELLOW: DANCE STYLES JAZZ, MODERN, SWING, TAP
• GREEN: STEAL LIFT, PALM, POCKET, SWIPE
• BLUE: PERFORM WELL ON ACE, CRUSH, NAIL, ROCK
• PURPLE: ___BALL PITCHES CURVE, FAST, KNUCKLE, SCREW

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 mistakes

The days on which I solve purple are not all that frequent, so I was pleased to NAIL it today. Or maybe I should say to ACE it. Or CRUSH it or ROCK it. Except no, that group – PERFORM WELL – was the blue one that I solved by default, though I think I would have got it if I'd have needed to.

Instead, purple was ___BALL PITCHES, with CURVE, FAST, KNUCKLE and SCREW, and despite previously having complained about how regularly the NYT puts baseball or other mainly US-only sports into Connections, somehow I got this one. Admittedly, it's among the easier purple groups; I made a couple of incorrect guesses before getting it, because SCREW didn't occur to me, but the other three are well known and feature in my preferred sport, cricket, too.

Yellow and green, meanwhile, were both fairly easy, making this a reasonably approachable Connections game overall.

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

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Friday, 29 November, game #537)

• YELLOW: UNDERTAKING ENDEAVOR, ENTERPRISE, PROJECT, VENTURE
• GREEN: UNITS HERTZ, MOLE, SECOND, VOLT
• BLUE: M.L.B. TEAM MEMBER NATIONAL, RAY, TIGER, TWIN
• PURPLE: FIRST WORDS OF HBO SHOWS BOARDWALK, CURB, GAME, SILICON

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.

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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

NYT Strands today (game #272) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Yas Queen!

NYT Strands today (game #272) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• BLOW
• BOWL
• POSE
• DOSE
• MOSS
• MOSSY

NYT Strands today (game #272) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Mercuryial

NYT Strands today (game #272) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: left, 3rd row

Last: bottom, 3rd column

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

NYT Strands today (game #272) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #272, are…

• WIND
• LIFE
• COME
• EASY
• REAL
• BLOWS
• FANTASY
• SPANGRAM: BOHEMIANRHAPSODY

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 4 hints

Honestly, this one completely baffled me. I've been asking the NYT puzzle setters to make Strands harder for ages, so I'm not complaining when I get a difficult one – but I simply did not make the connection between these words at all until after I'd uncovered the spangram, which was at the very end of my game.

I'm blaming the theme clue here of Yas! Queen, mainly because it meant nothing at all to me. I am old and out of touch and didn't even know this was a phrase, so I was completely thrown by it. Obviously the Queen aspect should have given it away, but no. To add to that, the answers here are all common words, and I didn't put them together mentally to be the lyrics to BOHEMIANRHAPSODY. All my fault, no complaints.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, 29 November, game #271)

• CHILL
• RELAX
• UNWIND
• PAUSE
• LOAF
• LOUNGE
• LUXURIATE
• SPANGRAM: DOWNTIME

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,000 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles.

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

Quordle today (game #1041) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1041) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 2.

Quordle today (game #1041) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1041) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1041) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• M

• S

• C

• T

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

Quordle today (game #1041) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1041, are…

• MAMMA
• SNUCK
• CRYPT
• TAROT

MAMMA must be one of the worst possible answers to turn up in Quordle (or Wordle). There are very few five-letter words that contain only two letters, but this is one and it nearly tripped me up today. I very much doubt I'm the only one.

Given that TAROT and CRYPT are also challenging answers for different reasons – repeated T in the first, no vowels in the second – this has the potential to be a very tough game of Quordle indeed. I solved it thanks to some luck with my start words, but it required more thought than is often the case.

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

Daily Sequence today (game #1041) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1041, are…

• CRIME
• PENCE
• OLIVE
• ANGER

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1040, Friday 29 November: JOIST, DROOL, DUSKY, GLIDE
• Quordle #1039, Thursday 28 November: GRADE, WORRY, NOISE, DAISY
• Quordle #1038, Wednesday 27 November: HEART, ROGUE, INEPT, UTILE
• Quordle #1037, Tuesday 26 November: PRIED, FAINT, HURRY, WOOER
• Quordle #1036, Monday 25 November: NUDGE, SNOOP, SHACK, DRYLY
• Quordle #1035, Sunday 24 November: CLOTH, CLAMP, PETTY, CHEST
• Quordle #1034, Saturday 23 November: AVOID, PLANT, FILET, TWIRL
• Quordle #1033, Friday 22 November: CUTIE, ALOOF, ETUDE, SILLY
• Quordle #1032, Thursday 21 November: RABBI, EAGER, COUGH, BRASH
• Quordle #1031, Wednesday 20 November: MINTY, TOPAZ, BRUSH, LAPEL
• Quordle #1030, Tuesday 19 November: NINJA, PENCE, PAINT, FOIST
• Quordle #1029, Monday 18 November: ASCOT, BRINK, WEIRD, HOMER
• Quordle #1028, Sunday 17 November: STATE, BRAWN, SWORE, URBAN
• Quordle #1027, Saturday 16 November: NOTCH, BENCH, BUSED, FOUND
• Quordle #1026, Friday 15 November: PURER, TRUSS, TORCH, FORUM
• Quordle #1025, Thursday 14 November: EXALT, TASTE, CRONY, CLOUT
• Quordle #1024, Wednesday 13 November: YEARN, ELBOW, SURGE, PINEY
• Quordle #1023, Tuesday 12 November: CHORD, ATTIC, OLIVE, EIGHT
• Quordle #1022, Monday 11 November: COPSE, REGAL, GRUNT, GOODY
• Quordle #1021, Sunday 10 November: GROIN, FAULT, FERRY, SUITE

All cords lead to WIRED. Come gather to find the best Black Friday tech deals.

Some parts of the country will receive heavy lake-effect snow and others will see rain or dry weather with subfreezing temperatures.

(Image credit: Robert F. Bukaty)

Grok is heading to mobile devices, according to a Wall Street Journal report. xAI CEO Elon Musk is planning to launch a standalone app for his Grok chatbot to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI chatbots like Google Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude.

Like the web version of Grok, the mobile app would likely use the Grok-2 model. The most recent iteration of the Grok line of models, Grok-2, offers similar conversational abilities to ChatGPT and other AI chatbots but is boosted with real-time information from X.

Grok is not universally available even from the web, and interacting with the AI chatbot requires a subscription to X Premium or Premium+. Going mobile might change that limitation, opening up at least a limited free-tier version of Grok in an app.

xAI certainly has the capital to pursue both making an app and making it more available. The company has seen a huge influx of investment that sets it up as a rare OpenAI rival with a real chance at carving away users. Setting up a standalone app for Grok suggests xAI has ambitions in that direction. With its own app, xAI can offer Grok to people who may not have an interest in X as a social media platform but who are still intrigued by what an AI chatbot could do for them.

Grok and go

ChatGPT is undoubtedly the most formidable rival Grok would face in the mobile app market, but is hardly the only one. Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and many others are quickly launching and upgrading mobile apps with whatever features and abilities the companies believe will entice more people to download the app.

xAI also has to work out how much appeal Grok will have divorced from its context on X. The ability to search through the social media platform is a major selling point for Grok, but would those who don't care about the controversial social media platform still use Grok? And would those who see value in X not just use Grok on the X app?

The details of the app, like whether it will include the Flux AI image creator, aren't clear, though it would be an obvious feature to add if it's not in the initial rollout. Regardless, the laid-back approach to copyright and trademark evident in Grok might also be a problem as it might open up more chances for people to get in trouble for making images of Mario if Nintendo's copyright infringement hunter Tracer goes after them for infringement, as happened on X.

You might also like

• Grok-2 arrives on X with AI image creation, precious few guardrails, and lots of questions
• A major new Midjourney rival has landed – here’s how to try the open-source Flux
• Nintendo jumps on AI images of Mario shared on X

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