Looking for a different day?
A new NEW Strands puzzle appears at midnight every day for your time zone – meaning some people always play ‘today’s game’ while others play ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for the Saturday puzzle instead then click here: NEW Strand’s Hints and Answers for Saturday 4th July (Game #853).
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game, following the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult though, so read on for my Strands tips.
Want more word-based fun? So check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle Today pages for tips and answers to these games, and Marc’s Wordle Today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER ALERT: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NEW Strands today (game #854) – tip #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Barking up the right tree
NEW Strands Today (Game #854) – Hint #2 – Clue Words
Play one of these words to unlock the in-game hint system.
- POLITE
- LIQUOR
- LIVER
- HUNGER
- THINGS
- SPEED
NEW Strands today (game #854) – tip #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are there in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 13 letters
NEW Strands today (game #854) – tip #4 – spangram position
What two sides of the board do today’s spangram touch?
• First page: bottom, 1st column
• Last page: top, 6th column
Okay, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NEW Strands today (game #854) – the answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #854, are…
- THE POINTER
- SPANIEL
- TERRIERS
- DOG
- RETRIEVER
- SPANGRAM: HUNTING TRACER
- My assessment: Easy
- My score: Perfect
My immediate thought was that the theme must have something to do with dogs, but of course I was wary of falling into a trap and barking up the wrong tree.
After watching POINTER it seemed clear we were looking for dog breeds, but my dog knowledge wasn’t good enough to know we were looking for JAGTRACER until after I linked the SPANIEL and TERRIER and then the spanframe.
In addition to the game itself, there was also an interesting harvest of long words that were not games. It’s rare that I find many over five letters long, but today the board was full of them.
Yesterday’s NYT Strand’s Answer (Saturday, July 4, Game #853)
- DESIRE
- COLORFUL
- MIXING
- EXCITING
- MOUSLING
- SPANGRAM: FIREWORKS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s not-so-new-anymore word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now a full-fledged member of NYT’s game stable that’s been running for a year and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I have a full guide on how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips to solve it, so check it out if you struggle to beat it every day.
