Connections Hints

Saturday, May 3, 2025

Words from the NYT Connections puzzle — May 3, 2025

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Show the word gridAll 16 words — you figure out the groups
Show the themesCategory names only, no words revealed
One word per groupTheme name + one word per category
Full solutionAll words and explanations
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Word grid

All 16 words, sorted alphabetically. Group them into four categories of four.

COMP
CREAM
DOPE
FIRE
HELL
ILL
LICK
LIT
MILK
NETI
ORGO
PASTE
SHELL
SICK
SMOKE
WELL
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Themes

The four category names, easiest to hardest. No words revealed yet.

AWESOMEStraightforward
DEFEAT SOUNDLYModerate
“WILL” CONTRACTIONS WITHOUT THE APOSTROPHETricky
URL ENDINGS PLUS A LETTERDevious
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One word per group

Theme name plus one word from each category.

AWESOMEStraightforward
SLANG WORDS THAT MEAN EXCELLENT OR IMPRESSIVE+ 3 more…
DEFEAT SOUNDLYModerate
VERBS MEANING TO BEAT SOMEONE BADLY IN A COMPETITION+ 3 more…
“WILL” CONTRACTIONS WITHOUT THE APOSTROPHETricky
THESE LOOK LIKE WORDS BUT ARE ACTUALLY CONTRACTED FUTURE-TENSE PHRASES MISSING THEIR APOSTROPHE+ 3 more…
URL ENDINGS PLUS A LETTERDevious
ADD A LETTER TO A COMMON URL ENDING (.COM, .MIL, .NET, .ORG) TO GET EACH WORD+ 3 more…
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Full solution
AWESOMEStraightforward
DOPE,FIRE,LIT,SICK

DOPE, FIRE, LIT, and SICK are all slang terms meaning awesome or excellent

DEFEAT SOUNDLYModerate
CREAM,LICK,PASTE,SMOKE

CREAM, LICK, PASTE, and SMOKE all mean to decisively defeat someone

“WILL” CONTRACTIONS WITHOUT THE APOSTROPHETricky
HELL,ILL,SHELL,WELL

HE'LL, I'LL, SHE'LL, and WE'LL are 'will' contractions that, written without apostrophes, spell HELL, ILL, SHELL, and WELL

URL ENDINGS PLUS A LETTERDevious
COMP,MILK,NETI,ORGO

COMP (.com+P), MILK (.mil+K), NETI (.net+I), and ORGO (.org+O) are each a URL domain extension with one letter added

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