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Today’s NYT Strands hints and answers.
Looking for Saturday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! I hope you’re having a most wonderful weekend, whether that means going out and doing stuff, taking it easy at home, neither, both or something in between.
Today’s NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers are coming right up.
How To Play Strands
The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s not available in the NYT Games app alongside the likes of Wordle and Connections (which we also cover in daily guides on Forbes Games).
There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.
You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links at least two sides of the board, but it may not start or end there. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Every letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and it’s possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you’re playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.
If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you’ll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words.
Be warned: You’ll need to be on your toes. Sometimes you’ll need to fill the missing word(s) in a phrase. On other days, the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day, and the puzzle creators will try to surprise you sometimes.
What Is Today’s Strands Hint?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today’s Strands puzzle, I’ll reveal what the answer words are.
The official theme hint for today’s Strand puzzle is…
Say my name
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Moniker soundalikes
There are nine theme words to find today, including the spangram.
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Strands answers.
I’ll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid. I’ll then tell you the other words and show you how they fit in.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Strands spangram is…
HOMOPHONES
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
New York Times Strands screenshot, showing the highlighted term HOMOPHONES.
The rest of today’s Strands theme words are…
- PEAT
- MERRY
- WHINNY
- FILL
- GALE
- RUSTLE
- HAIRY
- ATOM
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
Completed Strands grid for July 14 featuring the words PEAT, HOMOPHONES, MERRY, WHINNY, FILL, GAME, … [+]
I didn’t have much to go on here, so I unlocked a hint for PEAT in the top left. That didn’t help much, so I unlocked a second to give me the letters for FILL. So I was thinking it would be homonyms for forenames at that point (Pete and Fill). I spotted GALE (Gail) on the right to confirm my suspicion.
It was then that I found the spangram, which blocked off the letters for HAIRY (Harry) and MERRY (Mary) on the right. I then saw RUSTLE (Russel) on the left, which left the letters for WHINNY (Winnie) and ATOM (Tom, I guess?)
(Edit: a reader pointed out that the latter’s more likely to be Adam.).
I used two hints and the spangram was the fourth theme word I found.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Strands clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Monday’s game if you need them.
P.S. Just because it was today’s theme clue, this song is now stuck in my head. A classic.