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.
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
- BALE
- RAIL
- SOLID
- BOOM
- NUTS
- BEAR
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 #315, are…
- STUN
- ASTONISH
- GOBSMACK
- SURPRISE
- FLABBERGAST
- SPANGRAM: MINDBLOWN
- My rating: Easy
- My score: Perfect
There’s a couple of brilliant words in today’s Strands that feel as if they belong in boy’s comics from the 1950s and have not been heard much since – GOBSMACK and FLABBERGAST.
I was pleased – although not particularly gobsmacked – to learn that Flabbergast originated in Sussex, which is the English county where I was born, although quite why that particular area popularized a word which originally meant “shocked tubby person” is uncertain.
Gobsmack is also interesting and again began as a portmanteau of two slang words – Gob (for mouth, coined in Ireland in the 16th century) and Smack, which describes the sound of a flat hand hitting something – so hitting your mouth in shock. Something I instantly imagine Stan Laurel doing.
Meanwhile, today’s big SURPRISE was that I completed Strands again without any hints.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
- DAWN
- DUSK
- NOON
- EVENING
- MORNING
- DAYBREAK
- TWILIGHT
- SPANGRAM: TIMING