NYT Connections Hints And Answers For Saturday, May 3

Hey there, Connectors! Welcome to the weekend. I hope it’s a terrific one for you.

Last Sunday, I went to an arcade with my partner and her four-year-old. It had been a long time since I had been in a place like that, and was a little sad that there were so many machines and games oriented around winning tickets that you can redeem for prizes. 

We all had a ton of fun, don’t get me wrong. But I was hoping for a little more of the kind of experience I had when I was younger, when arcades were filled with actual video games – Time Crisis, House of the Dead, Street Fighter and so on. I remember one particularly fun Star Wars one that saw you use a joystick to swing a lightsaber around. There was one Jurassic Park game at this arcade where you could blast dinosaurs, but that was pretty much it in terms of proper video games.

I think there are some bars in my neck of the woods that have some proper arcade machines. I might just have to go and check those out soon.

Before we begin, we have a great little community on Discord, where we chat about NYT Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of other stuff. Everyone who has joined has been lovely. It’s a fun hangout spot, and you’re more than welcome to hang out with us.

Discord is also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare (or not-so-rare) occasions that I mess something up. I don’t look at the comments or Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, May 3 are coming right up.

What Are Today’s Connections Hints?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of today’s Connections groups, I’ll reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.

Today’s 16 words are...

• SMOKE

• SHELL

• FIRE

• MILK

• CREAM

• COMP

• HELL

• LIT

• SICK

• LICK

• PASTE

• NETI

• ORGO

• ILL

• WELL

• DOPE

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — totally rad

• Green group — blowout

• Blue group — punctuation is important

• Purple group — these might have some extra letters dotted around

What Are Today’s Connections Groups?

Need some extra help? 

Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.

Today’s Connections groups are...

• Yellow group — awesome

• Green group — defeat soundly

• Blue group — "will" contractions without the apostrophe

• Purple group — URL endings plus a letter

What Are Today’s Connections Answers?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.

This is your final warning!

Today’s Connections answers are...

• Yellow group — awesome (DOPE, FIRE, LIT, SICK)

• Green group — defeat soundly (CREAM, LICK, PASTE, SMOKE)

• Blue group — "will" contractions without the apostrophe (HELL, ILL, SHELL, WELL)

• Purple group — URL endings plus a letter (COMP, MILK, NETI, ORGO)

I failed in my quest for a perfect game today, but my streak keeps rolling along with a 67th win. Here's how I fared:

🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟦🟨🟪🟦
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟨🟨🟨🟨

My first suspicion was that COMP, ORGO and NETI had some kind of wordplay going on and could be purples, but I couldn't figure it out. As such, I left those well alone to begin with.

Because I'm so trendy and cool and hip, I clocked that there was probably a group within SICK, FIRE, ILL, LIT and DOPE. ILL seemed like the outlier (it's the most archaic of the bunch in the sense of referring to something cool). So I made a guess with the other four and got the yellows. Sweet.

I wasn't seeing anything else, so I went with a guess of SHELL, HELL, ILL and WILL, purely because they all ended in a double "L." It was a group, and I should have clocked the connection there. They refer to the words she'll, he'll, I'll and we'll. 

Finally, I went back to my first suspicion that COMP, ORGO and NETI would form three fourths of a group. I included a random word with them -- LICK -- to try to conform my suspicion and I was one away. MILK seemed like the most likely candidate after that. 

These words refer to the endings of website URLs, so .com, .org, .net and .mil. The last of which is typically used by military websites. My “dotted around” hint referred to the dot that appears before these terms.

I thought the greens might have something to do with cats, but alas.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for hints and the solution for Sunday’s game if you need them.

P.S. Here's something that brings together two of my recent fascinations: Jet Lag: The Game (a travel game show) and the logistics of putting on concerts.

Wendover Productions is the team behind Jet Lag. For years, founder Sam Denby and his team have been releasing fascinating, sharply edited educational videos, typically focusing on things like logistics, travel and economics. One video from a few months back shows the process of converting a hockey arena into a concert venue. It's a compelling watch:

Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love!

On weekdays, you can find this column over at Forbes. Please follow my blog there for more coverage of NYT Connections and other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot!

Sharing this column with other people who play Connections would be appreciated too. Also, subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t already! I have a tip jar over at Ko-fi as well.

1  I can’t use the same lead image I go with at Forbes, unfortunately. Still figuring out what to opt for here, but the one in the thumbnail is cool! I think you can only see that on the web version, though. Also, I can use GIFs here! And footnotes! This is fun.