NYT Strands Today — Hints, Answers, and Spangram for Friday, August 16 (Contest #166)
Today’s Strands are a lot of fun – but not necessarily the easiest. If you get stuck, scroll down for my hints.
Want more word-based fun? Check out my Wordle Today, NYT Connections Today, and Quordle Today pages for hints and answers for those games.
SPOILER ALERT: Below is information about today’s NYT Strands. So don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands Today (Game #166) – Hint #1 – Today’s Theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• The theme of today’s NYT Strands is… This or that
NYT Strands Today (Contest #166) – Hint #2 – Clue Words
Play one of these words to unlock the hint system in the game.
- PLIERS
- THING
- SATIN
- PERFORMANCE
- TAMING
- FLOP
NYT Strands Today (Contest #166) – Hint #3 – Spangram
What’s a hint for today’s spangram?
• One or the other
NYT Strands Today (Contest #166) – Hint #4 – Spangram Position
Which two sides of the board are affected by today’s spangram?
First: Left, 5th row
Last: Right, 4th row
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands Today (Contest #166) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Strands question, game #166, are…
- SINK
- SWIMMING
- TO MAKE
- BREAK
- PARTY
- FAMINE
- DOUBLE
- NOTHING
- SPANGRAM: OPTIONS
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
Strands is at its best when it plays with language, rather than just collections of words within a simple theme (although sometimes they can be a lot of fun to solve). Today is a good example: each answer here is part of a pair of words that together form a phrase used to mean OPTIONS, the spangram.
For example, we have SINK or SWIM, DOUBLE or NOTHING, FEAST or FAMINE, and MAKE or BREAK. Very clever. The problem is that these games can be difficult to identify. I discovered SINK, MAKE, and BREAK by accident before I realized what was going on, and even then I had to do quite a bit of searching to find the first half of each puzzle before I could then look for the second (which was usually much easier to identify, of course).
I eventually got them all, but it took me longer than some Strands puzzles, which is a good thing in the end.
How was your day? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s Answers to NYT Strands (Thursday, August 15, Contest #165)
- FUNNY
- CRAZY
- CLOWN
- FOOL
- joker
- BOSSWORST
- SPANGRAM: YOUR CHILDHOOD
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the new word game from the NYT, after Wordle and Connections. It is now out of beta and is therefore a full member of the NYT stable of games and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I have a complete guide to playing NYT Strands, complete with tips to solve the game. If you are having a hard time beating the game every day, you can definitely check it out.
