NYT 'Connections' Hints And Answers For Sunday, May 11

Hey there, Connectors! I hope you’re having an absolutely wonderful weekend.

It’s time for another confession. Despite how much I love music and the fact I make my living by putting words together in an order that at least sort of makes sense, I am absolutely terrible when it comes to remembering song lyrics.

I don’t even know all of the lyrics to most of my very favorite songs. I’m not sure why I can’t retain them. I had a great memory as a kid!

Most of the time, what makes me connect with a song is the melody. It could be the most extreme death metal track in history, but if there’s a catchy melody, I’ll probably enjoy it. I don’t typically pay too much attention to the actual words that are being sung though, no matter the genre. There are some songs I do know inside and out, but those feel few and far between. It’s an odd little quirk of mine.

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 join 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 Twitter much.

Today’s NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, May 11 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...

• BOSS

• BOOSE

• TICKLE

• SUIT

• DUCK

• HEALTH

• SHAKE

• SKIRT

• PLEASE

• MAY I

• SUPERIOR

• LEVEL

• DODGE

• DELIGHT

• EARTH

• POWER-UP

And the hints for today’s Connections groups are:

• Yellow group — brighten someone’s day

• Green group — steer clear of

• Blue group — doing some exercise, for instance jumping, at the right time and place could give you extra life

• Purple group — linked by the title of that one Danzig song that appears in Guitar Hero II and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Fans of female pop artists will also often say that “_____ is _____ing”

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 — make happy

• Green group — evade

• Blue group — common video game features

• Purple group — mother _____

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 — make happy (DELIGHT, PLEASE, SUIT, TICKLE)

• Green group — evade (DODGE, DUCK, SHAKE, SKIRT)

• Blue group — common video game features (BOSS, HEALTH, LEVEL, POWER-UP)

• Purple group — mother _____ (EARTH, GOOSE, MAY I, SUPERIOR)

I was worried that since this was game 700, there would be some kind of nonsense going on. However, it was a surprisingly easy one. So much so, that I got a reverse rainbow! Go figure. That's only my fifth ever I think. It also extended my winning streak to 75. Phew. Here's how I fared (as if it's needed):

🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨

I felt that MAY I made the purples incredibly obvious, so I got those quickly. Mother, MAY I is a children’s game. Mother EARTH is a personification of nature, and Mother SUPERIOR is the head of a convent. As for Mother GOOSE, that’s a character who appears in kids’ fiction.

The blues were super easy for me too. POWER-UP was a clear giveaway there. There was a chance that DODGE could have gone with them, but I felt that had to go with the greens, which I got next.

That left the yellows. Again, no issues there at all. It’s funny that TICKLE can mean both to please someone and annoy the hell out of them.

That’s all there is to it for today’s Connections clues and answers. I’ll be back over at Forbes tomorrow for Monday’s edition of the column. See you there! I’m also hoping to send out a non-Connections essay here in the next few days 👀

P.S. My former partner's favorite artist of all time is Damien Rice (unless Taylor Swift has taken the top spot, I'm not sure)! I've become a big fan of his too. I've seen him live a few times, including in Milan a couple of years ago.

He makes wonderful folk music that's often heartbreaking, but still kind of perfect for a Sunday morning — or any time, really. This is probably my favorite song of his. Like the rest of Rice's work, "My Favorite Faded Fantasy" is utterly gorgeous:

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!

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