Today’s NYT Strands provide tips and answers.
Looking for Thursday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, gang! I hope you’re all set for the weekend. This is my last day of Strings cover for a couple of weeks. My colleague Paul will be your guide for seven days starting tomorrow.
Today’s NYT Strings hints, spangram and answers are coming.
How to Play Strands
The New York Times Strings puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It is now available on the NYT Games app alongside the likes of Wordle And Connections (which we also write about in the daily guides on Forbes Games).
There is a new game from Strings to play every day. The game presents you with a six by eight letter grid. The goal is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you get a sense of what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it stays highlighted in blue.
You also have to find a special word, a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram connects at least two sides of the board, but it cannot start or end there. Although the theme words will not be a proper noun, the spangram can be a proper noun. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Each letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangrams. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally and it is possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you are 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 will unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that form one of the theme words.
Be warned: you have to be on your guard. Sometimes you have to fill in the missing words in a sentence. On other days the game can revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day and the puzzle creators will sometimes try to surprise you.
What’s the Today’s Strands hint?
Scroll slowly! Just after today’s hint Strings puzzle, then I reveal the answer words.
The official theme tip for today Beach puzzle is…
And the Oscar goes to…
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Polished artists
There are eight theme words that will be discussed today, including the spangram.
What are today’s answers?
Spoiler alert! Do not scroll further down the page until you are ready to view today’s information. Strings answers.
I’ll tell you the spangram first and show you where it is on the grid. Then I’ll tell you the other words and show you how they fit.
This is your final warning!
Today Strings spangram is…
BEST ACTING PERFORMANCE
Here you will find it on the grid…
Screenshot of New York Times Strands, with the term BEST ACTING highlighted.
The rest of today Strings theme words are…
- FIELD
- Swinging
- BERRY
- PHOENIX
- HUNT
- BRIDGES
- STONE
This is what the finished grid looks like…
Completed Strands grid for July 19th featuring the words FIELD, SWANK, BERRY, BEST ACTING, PHOENIX, … [+]
Nothing really clicked because I was looking for names of Oscar winning movies. I needed something else to go on, so I unlocked hints that gave me the letters for HUNT, STONE and SWANK. That suggested I look for the last names of Oscar winners (Helen, Emma and Hilary in those cases). There have been quite a few of those!
I did find the spangram though, which helped. It blocked the letters for (Halle) BERRY and (Sally) FIELD. (Joaquin) PHOENIX was next, which allowed (Jeff) BRIDGES to take the win.
I used three hints and the spangram was the fourth theme word I found. Not the ideal way to start my current stint of Strings reporting, but I will smile kindly and applaud those who played a perfect game.
That’s all there is to do today Strings clues and answers. Make sure to check out Paul’s blog for hints and the solution for Saturday’s game if you need them.