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TechRadar
Marc McLaren

NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, November 15 (game #257)

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background.

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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 #257) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is… Dress for lunch

NYT Strands today (game #257) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

  • SCREE
  • CREED
  • CHIDE
  • REED
  • WARE
  • RANG

NYT Strands today (game #257) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

Rabbit food?

NYT Strands today (game #257) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: left, 5th row

Last: right, 4th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #257) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #257, are…

  • KALE
  • ICEBERG
  • ROMAINE
  • WATERCRESS
  • RADICCHIO
  • SPANGRAM: SALADGREENS

  • My rating: Easy
  • My score: 1 hint

I'm not a fan of salad and very rarely eat it, but even I was able to solve today's easy Strands puzzle. I needed one hint to get started, admittedly, because the theme clue of 'Dress for lunch' was just a bit too far on the cryptic side. Strands is a little variable in this regard; some days the theme clues give the game away, some days they are only really helpful once you've used up a hint (or found an answer by accident).

That's a hard thing to get right, though, and in fairness it was a simple task to find the likes of ICEBERG, ROMAINE, WATERCRESS and RADICCHIO once I had KALE on the board; even if you don't eat these SALADGREENS you'll surely recognize the names.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 14 November, game #256)

  • PLUM
  • GREEN
  • PEACOCK
  • MUSTARD
  • ORCHID
  • SCARLET
  • SPANGRAM: CLUESUSPECTS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and 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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