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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.
NYT Strands today (game #264) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… This is the place!
NYT Strands today (game #264) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- VINE
- TRIM
- TIME
- MICE
- BONE
- PHONE
NYT Strands today (game #264) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Just look at a map
NYT Strands today (game #264) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First: left, 5th row
Last: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #264) - the answers
The answers to today's Strands, game #264, are…
- BEND
- MOBILE
- BUFFALO
- RIVERSIDE
- PHOENIX
- BOULDER
- SPANGRAM: CITYNAME
- My rating: Stupid
- My score: 2 hints
There are approximately 10,000 cities in the world. There are at least a few hundred in the US alone, depending on how you define a city. And the task the NYT gave us today for Strands? Name six of them. That's all. No theme or connection between them. Nothing clever, like they're all names that are also animals (like BUFFALO and to an extent PHOENIX) or names that are also TV shows (RIVERSIDE) or names that are geological features (BOULDER) or whatever. Just six CITYNAMEs, all of them in the US.
I suppose the only thing that does link them is that they are all something other than just proper nouns; by that measure New York or Miami or Chicago would not work. But all the same, it's stretching things a bit to call CITYNAME a unifying theme.
That lack of a real concept behind it made it difficult to solve. I got BEND and then MOBILE first, and neither particularly screamed 'You need to list US city names' to me, even when taking into account the theme clue of 'This is the place!'. Yes, I know that both are cities, and it even occured to me as a possible connection, but I dismissed it as silly. Little did I know…
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 21 November, game #263)
- POKER
- CHIMNEY
- BROOM
- FLUE
- HEARTH
- SCREEN
- MANTEL
- SPANGRAM: FIREPLACE
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and 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.
