Looking for a different day?
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 Saturday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, July 4 (game #853).
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 #854) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Barking up the right tree
NYT Strands today (game #854) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- POLITE
- SPRITE
- LIVER
- HUNGER
- TINGE
- SPEEDING
NYT Strands today (game #854) – hint #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 13 letters
NYT Strands today (game #854) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
• First side: bottom, 1st column
• Last side: top, 6th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #854) – the answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #854, are…
- POINTER
- SPANIEL
- TERRIER
- HOUND
- RETREIVER
- SPANGRAM: HUNTINGBREEDS
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
My immediate thought was that the theme had to have something to do with dogs, but I was wary, of course, of falling into a trap and barking up the wrong tree.
After spotting POINTER it seemed clear that we were looking for dog breeds, but my canine knowledge was not good enough to know that we were searching out HUNTINGBREEDS until after I had connected SPANIEL and TERRIER and then the spangram.
Beyond the game itself there was also an interesting crop of lengthy non-game words. It’s rare that I’ll find many over five-letters long but today the board was loaded with them.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Saturday, July 4, game #853)
- BRIGHT
- COLORFUL
- DAZZLING
- EXCITING
- SPARKLING
- SPANGRAM: FIREWORKS
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.
