Looking for today’s NYT Strands hints and answers? The daily word puzzle from The New York Times sits alongside the Mini Crossword, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition as one of the publisher’s most popular brain-teasers.
Strands works much like a word-find game, but without the list of words to hunt for. Some players spot the theme immediately and begin recognising the answers straight away. For trickier days, there is a helpful loophole: Strands lets you make as many words of four or more letters as you like. For every three such words you find, the puzzle highlights one of the answers, though you will still need to unscramble it, which can prove challenging.
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is: Top secret. If that is not enough to get you going, here is a further clue: 007. Fans of James Bond should feel right at home with this one, as the words begin to fill in.
Your aim is to find hidden words that fit the theme. If you become stuck, find any words you can. Every time you spot three words of four letters or more, Strands reveals one of the theme words. Useful clue words to unlock in-game hints include COUNT, COUNTER, PURE, GREY, TANG, GNAT, RATE, SOLE, RATER, STEER, CRED, CREDIT and RECOUNT, though any qualifying words will work.
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that stretches from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you have them all, every letter on the board will be used. The number of answers can vary from puzzle to puzzle.
The non-spangram answers are MOLE, AGENT, ASSET, PLANT, OPERATIVE and COUNTERSPY.
Today’s Strands spangram is UNDERCOVER. To find it, begin with the U that sits four letters down on the far-left row, then wind down and across.
