07-05-2025
NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #431 (Thursday, May 8 2025)
(Image credit: Tom's Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Well, fancy that!" — is a rather fun puzzle with plenty of unusual letters to lead the way.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #431, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #431, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #431. You may like Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #431 is... "Well, fancy that!"
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "All that glitters".
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens: NIGHT
RUDE
EVADES
SAINT
HAVE
GAINS
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with O and ends with Y.
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It's OOHSHINY. Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #431?
Drumroll, please... SNAZZY
EXTRAVAGANT
GAUDY
LAVISH
DELUXE
ORNATE
(Image credit: Alan Martin)
...and the spangram was OOHSHINY
Strands #431
'Well, fancy that!'
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Hi Strands fans. That was a fun puzzle. I might have struggled to figure out what the theme of "Well, fancy that!" meant, if it weren't for the density of unusual letters. There are, after all, two 'X's and 'Z's on the grid.
That meant I found SNAZZY in the bottom-left , followed by EXTRAVAGENT in the opposite corner immediately after. Clearly this was going to be about words for "fancy".
I then found GAUDY in the bottom right, and I couldn't help but notice the word "shiny" spelt vertically next to it. I expanded this to make the spangram of OOHSHINY, spelt in a straight line from top to bottom of the grid.
Three words were left to find on the left-hand side. LAVISH in the top left was easy enough, but unpicking the remaining two was a bit more of a challenge, even if one contained an 'X'.
Inevitably, it was that one that fell first, when I realized it was part of DELUXE. That just left ORNATE to complete the puzzle. Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #430 right here .
