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The Saturday, May 11, 2024 NYT Connections puzzle was Connections #335. Because May 11 falls on different weekdays in different years, this guide specifies 2024. Spoilers follow: use the category hints first, then scroll for the complete answers.
First, the date: this answer guide is for the Saturday, May 11, 2024 puzzle, which was Connections #335. May 11 fell on a Saturday in 2024; the date landed on Sunday in 2025 and will fall on Monday in 2026.
Spoiler warning: the category hints come first. The complete groups and all 16 answers appear below the divider.
NYT Connections hints for Saturday, May 11
- Yellow: The main attraction or top-billed performer.
- Green: Classic deterrents or weaknesses associated with vampires.
- Blue: Familiar shortened names of humorous satirical publications.
- Purple: Add the same word before each entry to form familiar phrases.
One-word-per-group hints
If you want a little more help without seeing every answer, these are the strongest individual clues:
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- Yellow: HEADLINER
- Green: CROSS
- Blue: CRACKED
- Purple: MED
NYT Connections answers for May 11, 2024
Yellow: ONE WITH TOP BILLING
HEADLINER, LEAD, PRINCIPAL, STAR
Each word can describe a leading performer, actor, participant, or main attraction. “Headliner” and “lead” are the most direct performer terms, while “principal” and “star” can also identify someone in a prominent or leading role.
Green: VAMPIRE VULNERABILITIES
CROSS, GARLIC, SILVER, SUN
These are conventional vampire weaknesses or repellents in folklore and popular fiction. The category is a fictional and cultural theme—not a claim about real-world biology.
Blue: SATIRICAL PUBLICATIONS, FAMILIARLY
CRACKED, LAMPOON, MAD, ONION
The trick is to read these as familiar references to satirical publications rather than as ordinary vocabulary. They point to Cracked, National Lampoon, Mad, and The Onion. “Lampoon” and “Onion” are the shortened forms that make this group less immediately obvious.
Purple: CLUB ___
MED, MUSIC, SANDWICH, SODA
Place club before each word: Club Med, club music, club sandwich, and club soda. This is the construction-based group, so the entries do not share one subject in the way the other categories do.
Complete grid
The 16 words in the May 11, 2024 grid were:
CRACKED, CROSS, GARLIC, HEADLINER, LAMPOON, LEAD, MAD, MED, MUSIC, ONION, PRINCIPAL, SANDWICH, SILVER, SODA, STAR, SUN
Why this Connections grid was tricky
Several entries have tempting alternate meanings. Star can suggest an astronomical object, lead can refer to a metal or a leash, and cross can be a verb, shape, or religious symbol. Onion looks like an ordinary food word, while music can follow many different modifiers.
The intended solution becomes clearer when the most direct group is isolated first: HEADLINER, LEAD, PRINCIPAL, and STAR all point toward the leading person in a production or event. CROSS, GARLIC, SILVER, and SUN then form a recognizable vampire-fiction set. Once those eight words are removed, the publication names and the four Club ___ phrases resolve the remaining entries.
More Connections puzzles
If you enjoy the category-matching format beyond the daily grid, look for the official Connections puzzle book. The New York Times Games and Wyna Liu describe it as a hardcover collection of more than 100 Connections puzzles, with publication listed for October 27, 2026. That date and product status should be checked at publication time, since this is a future-oriented recommendation rather than a claim that the book was available on the original 2024 puzzle date.
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Which year does the May 11 NYT Connections puzzle refer to?
This guide is for the Saturday, May 11, 2024, NYT Connections puzzle, which was Connections #335. May 11 was a Sunday in 2025 and is a Monday in 2026.
What were the Connections categories on May 11, 2024?
The four categories were ONE WITH TOP BILLING, VAMPIRE VULNERABILITIES, SATIRICAL PUBLICATIONS, FAMILIARLY, and CLUB ___.
The Bottom Line
The May 11, 2024 Connections answers were HEADLINER, LEAD, PRINCIPAL, STAR; CROSS, GARLIC, SILVER, SUN; CRACKED, LAMPOON, MAD, ONION; and MED, MUSIC, SANDWICH, SODA.
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