Looking for a different day?
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Sunday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, May 18 (game #441).
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 NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #442) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Taking the bait
NYT Strands today (game #442) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- TURN
- SOFA
- TOUR
- PEST
- NIGHTS
- SMOKE
NYT Strands today (game #442) – hint #3 – spangram letters
How many letters are in today’s spangram?
• Spangram has 15 letters
NYT Strands today (game #442) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First side: top, 5th column
Last side: bottom, 3rd column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #442) – the answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #442, are…
- MACKEREL
- TROUT
- SALMON
- SNAPPER
- HALIBUT
- SPANGRAM: SOMETHINGS FISHY
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
About a quarter way through today’s search I thought to myself “there’s no way Strands would have a spangram as long as SOMETHINGS FISHY is there?”
But, oh how wrong I was and there it is taking up a third of the grid when we could be fishing for fishy words.
I also find it hard to look at without the apostrophe – as in ‘something’s fishy’ – even though that would not work in a word search, but maybe I’m alone with that.
MACKEREL was the easiest word to find thanks to the CK in its name, while SNAPPER proved the hardest to tap out as there were several variants to the order of the letters.
Other than that, today’s search was about as easy as shooting fish in a bucket, but in fairness it was limited to a tasty and fancy selection – none of these fine sources of omega 3 are likely to find themselves as an ingredient in a stick or a burger.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Sunday, May 18, game #441)
- HELM
- MAST
- RIGGING
- KEEL
- TILLER
- HULL
- RUDDER
- STERN
- SPANGRAM: SAILBOAT
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable that has been running for a year and which 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.
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