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 Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, October 12 (game #953).
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 #954) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Well, this is awkward
NYT Strands today (game #954) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- SOME
- BREWS
- PART
- PATH
- FROM
- FROGS
NYT Strands today (game #954) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 12 letters
NYT Strands today (game #954) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
• First side: left, 1st row
• Last side: right, 7th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #954) - the answers
The answers to today's Strands, game #954, are…
- EMBARRASS
- APPALL
- NONPLUS
- CHAGRIN
- MORTIFY
- SPANGRAM: CRINGEWORTHY
- My rating: Hard
- My score: Perfect
I’m classing this as tricky because despite getting by without hints it still took me longer than usual to complete the board.
After getting the spangram fairly quickly I was confident I’d roar through the board at speed, chuckling at memories of CRINGEWORTHY scenes from Something About Mary and Meet The Parents.
Alas, after getting EMBARRASS I struggled to think of any other synonyms for awkward; I thought NONPLUS meant you were indifferent. Ah well, every day’s a school day.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, October 12, game #953)
- PARLANCE
- JARGON
- VERNACULAR
- LINGO
- DIALECT
- SPANGRAM: TURNOFPHRASE
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.