Today's Strand is a lot of fun, but not necessarily the easiest. If you get a little stuck, scroll down for my suggestions.
Want more word fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today, and Quordle today pages for clues and answers to those games.
SPOILER WARNING: Below you will find 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): Clue #1: Today's Topic
What is the topic of today's NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands topic is… This or that
NYT Strands Today (Game #166): Clue #2: Keywords
Play any of these words to unlock the game's hint system.
- CLAMP
- STUFF
- SATIATE
- ACHIEVEMENT
- TAME
- FAILURE
NYT Strands today (game #166): clue #3 – spangram
What is a clue for today's spangram?
• One or the other
NYT Strands Today (Game #166): Clue #4: Spangram Position
What are the two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First: Left, 5th row
Last: Right, 4th row
Well, the answers are below, so DON'T CONTINUE FOLLOWING THE PAGE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #166): the answers
The answers to today's Strands game #166 are…
- SINK
- SWIM
- DO
- BREAK
- FEAST
- FAMINE
- DOUBLE
- NOTHING
- SPANGRAM: OPTIONS
- My rating: Moderate
- My rating: Perfect
Strands works best when it plays with language, rather than just being a collection of words within a simple theme (although they can sometimes be a lot of fun to solve, too). Today's 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. Pretty clever. The problem is that these games can be hard to identify. I discovered SINK, MAKE, and BREAK by accident before I realized what was going on, and even after that I had to search quite a bit to find the first half of each puzzle before I could find the second half (which, obviously, used to be a lot easier to identify).
I eventually got them all, but it took me longer than some Strands puzzles, and that's ultimately a good thing.
How did your day go? Send me an email and let me know.
Answers from yesterday's NYT Strands (Thursday, August 15, match #165)
- COMIC
- SILLY
- CLOWN
- JESTER
- JOKER
- JESTER
- SPANGRAM: YOU'RE KIDDING ME
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta, making it a full member of the NYT Games roster and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I have a complete guide on how to play NYT Strands, with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
