Strands Hint NYT – Spangram, Hints & Answers for Today May 15, 2025
Are you hooked on Wordle, Spelling Bee, or Connections? Then you’ll love Strands—the New York Times’ newest daily word game. It’s a fun mix of your favorite puzzles, with fresh challenges every day.
Welcome to our daily Strands guide, where we help you solve the puzzle, find the tricky theme words, and uncover the hidden Spangram. We’ll cover exactly how to play Strands, hints for today’s spangram and all of the answers for Strands.
What Is NYT Strands Puzzle?
The NYT Strands puzzle is a new daily word game from the New York Times, similar to Connections, but with a fun twist. You get a board of letters and a daily theme. Your job is to find words related to that theme, using each letter only once per word.
One special word, called the Spangram, stretches across the board and reveals the puzzle’s main theme. Finding it can help you figure out the other hidden words.
The NYT hint is first and then I will give you one of my own that I think will help you along further. The official hint is:
Animal drive
And mine is
Vroom vroom
There you go, now go nuts.
Now we move on to the answers for the day and spoilers will follow, so be careful. We will start with the spangram and move on to the full list. The spangram is:
AUTOMOBILES
And here’s where that lies on the board:
The list of answers are:
- BRONCO
- IMPALA
- MUSTANG
- BEETLE
- JAGUAR
- RABBIT
So yep, that’s a list of cars that have animal names. Many of the came easy, but some were weird like I found “COBRA” in BRONCO where that is a variant of a MUSTANG, which is another puzzle word. I guess I didn’t think about an IMPALA being an animal but I mean, of course it is. There was also RAM in here, but there aren’t enough letters. I definitely forgot a RABBIT was a car, as it was first made over forty years ago now.
How to Play Strands Game
Strands is The New York Times’ clever spin on the classic word search. You can play it daily on the NYT website or through the NYT Games app, alongside hits like Wordle and Connections (which we also cover every day at StrandsHintNYT.com).
Find Theme Words
- Drag or tap letters to form words (double-tap the last letter to submit).
- Found theme words turn blue.
- The board is fully filled with theme words—no overlaps.
Find the Spangram
- It describes the puzzle’s theme and connects two opposite sides of the board.
- The spangram turns yellow when found.
- Example: If the theme is Fruit, words like APPLE, BANANA, and PEAR may appear.
Use Hints
- Find 3 non-theme words to earn a hint.
- Hints reveal letters or the order of a hidden theme word.
FAQ for Strands Hints
1. What is NYT Strands?
Strands is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times that challenges you to find themed words hidden in a 6×8 letter grid. Each puzzle comes with a clue, and your job is to uncover all the related words—plus one special word called the spangram.
2. What’s a spangram?
The spangram is the key to the puzzle—it explains what all the theme words have in common. It stretches across the board (touching at least two sides) and is highlighted in yellow once found. Unlike theme words, the spangram can be a proper noun.
3. Are the hints spoilers?
Nope! Our hints are designed to nudge you in the right direction without giving away the answers right away. We include gentle clues first, then reveal the spangram and full solution further down the page—so you can scroll at your own pace.
4. When is the Strands puzzle updated?
A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight Eastern Time. We update our hints, spangram, and answers at StrandsHintNYT.com shortly after—so you’re always covered if you get stuck!
More New York Times Games