Welcome to another week of Strands puzzles, courtesy of the New York Times. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find the answer words within a grid of letters; Think of it as a more complicated word search and you'll be on the right track. It can be quite difficult, so read on if you need some tips.
SPOILER WARNING: Today's NYT Strands info is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #85) – track #1 – today's topic
What's the topic of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands topic is… Noodles in this
NYT Strands Today (Game #85) – Clue #2 – Keywords
What are some good keywords today?
Play any of these words to unlock the game's hint system.
• BLOW
• LIPS
• LADDER
• BONE
• STARE
• NEEDLE
NYT Strands today (game #85) – clue #3 – spangram
What's a clue for today's spangram?
• A taste of Italy
NYT Strands today (game #85) – clue #4 – spangram position
What are the two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
• First: right, second row
• Last: left, 4th row
Well, the answers are below, so DON'T SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands Today (Game #85): The Answers
The answers to today's 85th Strands game are…
- SHELL
- WHEEL
- BOW TIE
- TUBE
- SPIRAL
- TAPE
- ELBOW
- SPANGRAM: PASTEFORMS
- My rating: Moderate
- My score: Perfect
I'm being a bit nitpicky here, but the 'Noodle on this one' theme track threw me off to begin with. In the UK, you're very unlikely to hear the word “noodles” applied to pasta, which is fair enough given that almost all of the PASTASHAPES listed in today's Strands puzzle are No noodles. The noodles are long and thin, while noodles like SHELL and BOWTIE clearly are not. There are also differences in terms of how the noodles and pasta are made, so to me it's like calling curry a casserole, and I would never do that.
Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic. The point is that 'Noodle' would never suggest 'pasta' to me, so it took me a while to understand what was going on here. I had already discovered SHELL, WHEEL, BOWTIE, TUBE and SPIRAL, all by accident, before the spangram became apparent and everything clicked. The others followed easily, so my game essentially consisted of about 10 minutes of not knowing what was going on, followed by about 30 seconds of finishing the game. On the bright side: I love pasta and I may eat it tonight.
As was your day? Send me an email and let me know.
Answers from yesterday's NYT Strands (Sunday, May 26, Game #84)
- CEASE
- REFRAIN
- FORGIVE
- FORGET
- SPLIT
- CONQUER
- SPANGRAM: ACTION VERBS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, after Wordle and Connections. It is currently in Beta and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I have a complete guide on how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check it out if you're struggling to beat it every day.
