NYT Strands today – my hints and answers for June 18 (#472)
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Looking for a different day?
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, June 17 (game #471).
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 NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Down time
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
CHOW
BOWL
HOWL
ELBOW
LOOM
GLOOM
• Spangram has 7 letters
First side: left, 5th row
Last side: right, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
The answers to today's Strands, game #472, are…
BLUE
GLOOMY
TEARY
DOLEFUL
WOEBEGONE
MELANCHOLY
SPANGRAM: SADNESS
My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 hints
Hi all, it's Marc here, back for a few days while Johnny takes a well-earned break.
Everyone experiences a bit of SADNESS from time to time, and in my case it really hit me during the Covid pandemic in 2020. I suspect I'm far from alone in that respect, and went through most of the emotions in today's Strands, from BLUE to GLOOMY to MELANCHOLY.
That didn't make it any easier to solve the puzzle, admittedly; this was a tricky one from start to finish. I needed a hint to get the first one, BLUE, then together with the theme clue of 'Down time' was able to establish what the concept was.
SADNESS, the spangram, was an easy spot but after that I had to work for every word, and needed another hint for the impossibly complicated WOEBEGONE.
How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.
FINAGLE
FINESSE
CONTRIVE
ENGINEER
NEGOTIATE
SPANGRAM: FIGURE OUT
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which 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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