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Marc McLaren

NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Wednesday, May 22 (game #80)

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

It's the middle of the week, and Strands continues to confound and delight in almost equal measure. Today's is one of the good days, I think: not too hard, not too easy, good fun. If you need hints for it you'll find them below, together with the answers if you want to skip straight to those.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is… Home grown

NYT Strands today (game #80) - hint #2 - clue words

What are some good clue words today?

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

GRAB

BARE

SALE

SAILOR

RIDER

SANE

NYT Strands today (game #80) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

Remember me to one who lives there

NYT Strands today (game #80) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First: left, 7th row

Last: right, 3rd row

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

NYT Strands today (game #80) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #80, are…

  • BASIL
  • SAGE
  • THYME
  • PARSLEY
  • ROSEMARY
  • CORIANDER
  • SPANGRAM: HERBGARDEN

  • My rating: Moderate
  • My score: Perfect

It's a common refrain from me that Strands can be very, very difficult until something clicks… at which point it becomes a lot more approachable. Today's game is another good example of that. 'Home grown', as a theme clue, is actually reasonably helpful, but it wasn't enough for me to realize that what I needed here was herbs. It was only once I stumbled upon BASIL, entirely by accident, that I understood what was needed – and from that time on (THYME on?) it was simply a matter of finding the words. 

The lyrics to Scarborough Fair, lodged firmly in my mind from both the Simon & Garfunkel cover and from Bob Dylan's peerless Girl from the North Country, helped me find several more, which was a nice bonus because the latter is now on repeat in my head, and that's never a bad thing. 

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


Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 21 May, game #79)

  • FAVORITES
  • WINDOW
  • HELP
  • TOOLS
  • FILE
  • HISTORY
  • EDIT
  • SPANGRAM: MENUITEMS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta 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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