A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, September 19 (game #565).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #566) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Dire straits
NYT Strands today (game #566) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- CLEAN
- DUKE
- DICE
- MILE
- DUEL
- TRIP
NYT Strands today (game #566) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 6 letters
NYT Strands today (game #566) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First side: left, 4th row
Last side: right, 1st row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #566) - the answers
The answers to today's Strands, game #566, are…
- MUDDLE
- PICKLE
- DILEMMA
- MESS
- QUANDARY
- PREDICAMENT
- SPANGRAM: INAFIX
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
My first hunch was that today’s Strands would be a search for Dire Straits songs – but that was very short-lived. Thankfully, this didn’t come through, not least because I could only think of three of their songs and alone they’d fill up the entire game.
In the end the theme didn’t really match the words we were looking for, to me “dire straits” signifies an extreme situation where your options have run dry, whereas our search words describe a tangle that can be rescued.
Anyway, I digress. Starting my search in the top-left-hand corner I discovered PICKLE and from there worked my way around without getting myself in much of a MUDDLE. I can’t imagine many found this game to be a PREDICAMENT.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, September 19, game #565)
- RICE
- COCONUT
- ALMOND
- MACADAMIA
- FLAX
- CASHEW
- SPANGRAM: NONDAIRYMILK
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which 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.
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