NYT Strands today — hints, answers and Spangram for Thursday, April 11 (game #39)

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
(Image credit: New York Times)

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for another brain-breaking instalment of the NYT's Strands puzzle. Except… that makes no sense, because there's a new Strands game each day, not just Thursdays.

Anyway, the important thing is that there's a new Strands game to play, courtesy of the New York Times Games section. I'd rate today's as a fairly easy one, but as always, YMMV.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren
Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.

NYT Strands today (game #39) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is… It's all in your head

NYT Strands today (game #39) - hint #2 - clue words

What are some good clue words today?

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

DEAD

DEVIL

FAKE

MEAT

MEANT

BOYS

NYT Strands today (game #39) - hint #3 - Spangram

What is a hint for today's Spangram?

Take a trip to the inner world

NYT Strands today (game #39) - hint #4 - Spangram position

Where does today's Spangram start and end?

Start: top, 3rd column

End: bottom, 5th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #39) - the answers

NYT Strands answers for game #39 on a blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #39, are…

  • REVERIE
  • FANTASY
  • ILLUSION
  • FIGMENT
  • DAYDREAM
  • SPANGRAM: MAKEBELIEVE
  • My rating: Easy
  • My score: Perfect

Strands is usually easier when the answers are longer, because that way there are fewer of them to find, and once you spot one it tends to make finding the others more straightforward.

Today's game is a good example: the clue of 'It's all in your head' could have implied a couple of directions, but once I noticed FANTASY in the top right it was obvious what kind of word I needed to hunt for. The two Ls in the bottom right sat next to I and U, so my brain immediately thought ILLUSION!

With those two in place, the Spangram had to run from top to bottom rather than left to right, because there were no free spaces left on the right. Reading down from the top row led me quite quickly to MAKEBELIEVE, and from there the other answers flowed with no real problems.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday 10 April, game #38)

  • THANKS
  • CHEERS
  • BEST
  • REGARDS
  • SINCERELY
  • ALWAYS
  • SPANGRAM: SIGNINGOFF

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Marc McLaren
Global Editor in Chief

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).

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