I wouldn't describe today's NYT Strands puzzle as a particularly difficult one, but that doesn't make it easy either; very few of them could be called that. But don't worry! I have help for you below in the form of several hints to get you started. Check them out if you need them, scroll down to my commentary if not.
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 #56) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Coming clean
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• DIET
• WORSE
• POEM
• DITCH
• WIDEN
• WATCH
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Water fall
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: left, 3rd row
• End: 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 #56) - the answers
The answers to today's Strands, game #56, are…
- RAZOR
- WASHCLOTH
- SOAP
- SPONGE
- SHAMPOO
- CONDITIONER
- SPANGRAM: SHOWER
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
This probably qualifies as a medium-difficulty Strands puzzle, because a couple of the words are quite long and therefore harder to find, and a couple of the shorter ones have uncommon letters of spelling. That can sometimes help, but not in this case – for me at least.
I got started easily enough, uncovering SHAMPOO and realizing that the theme clue – Coming clean – was going to mean finding personal cleaning items. I didn't quite have the shower element yet, though, especially once I found RAZOR; I'm sure plenty of people shave in the shower, but I'm not one of them, so I didn't yet make that connection. The trouble after that was simply that I couldn't find more words. I spotted WASH, but it didn't turn blue, and it took me ages to realize it continued into WASHCLOTH. SOAP was backwards, so to speak, so that took me a while too. And CONDITIONER foxed me right until I'd discovered everything else. Maybe it was just a bad day for me.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 27 April, game #55)
- QUEEN
- DOCTOR
- ADMIRAL
- REVEREND
- PROFESSOR
- SENATOR
- SPANGRAM: TITLES
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.
