It's time to tackle another of the NYT's Strands puzzles. The aim here is to uncover a series of words hidden within a grid of letters and united by a single theme.
It's easy to pick up, often difficult to solve and a great addition to your daily routine if you already play the likes of Wordle and Connections. So read on for a few helpful hints and my commentary on today's Strands puzzle.
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 #54) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Staff members
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• SPEAR
• SIGN
• FLOAT
• FITTER
• CLEAN
• SHUT
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Sheet music
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: bottom, 3rd column
• End: top, 5th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #54) - the answers
The answers to today's Strands, game #54, are…
- SHARP
- NATURAL
- CLEF
- FLAT
- SIGNATURE
- REST
- MEASURE
- SPANGRAM: NOTATION
- My rating: Very hard
- My score: Perfect
You might look at my verdict above and think there's an inconsistency; why am I describing it as 'very hard' when I got a perfect score? Well, you wouldn't wonder why if you'd seen me struggling to solve this one over a period of about an hour!
In my defence, the game was biased against me from the start. I've never learned a musical instrument, other than a few weeks playing recorder at school aged about six, until it was politely suggested to me that I might want to try something different such as standing in a corner watching everyone else. I am not musical.
To add to that, today's theme hint, 'Staff members', meant nothing to me. In the UK, we use the term 'stave' rather than 'staff', so Staff members simply had me thinking about maybe terms for workers of some kind.
I was completely and utterly stumped even once I'd found SHARP purely by chance. In fact, it was only when I stumbled upon CLEF and FLAT as well that I realized what was needed here. The problem was that my knowledge was not strong enough to know what the other answers might be – so I ended up solving it all by brute force. Every single word. Not fun.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday 25 April, game #53)
- CROWN
- HELMET
- BEANIE
- BERET
- FEDORA
- BONNET
- TURBAN
- SPANGRAM: HEADWEAR
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta 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.
