NYT Strands Today – Hints, Answers and Spangram for Monday May 20 (Game #78)
If you liked yesterday’s Strands puzzle from the NYT at easy, then don’t be afraid – today it’s back to normal. If it’s too difficult for you, you can read my tips below. If not, you can skip straight to my commentary on the game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about today’s NYT Strands is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #78) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Bird fairy tale
NYT Strands Today (Game #78) – Hint #2 – Clue Words
What are good keywords these days?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hint system.
• WEST
• SILENCE
• THE MIST
• BEAU
• BEAN
• BANK
NYT Strands today (game #78) – hint #3 – spangram
What’s a hint for today’s spangram?
• Those difficult early years
NYT Strands Today (Game #78) – Hint #4 – Spangram Position
What are the two sides of the board that today’s spangram comes into contact with?
• First: right, 5th row
• Last: left, 6th row
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands Today (Game #78) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #78, are…
- TRIP
- NICE
- MAJOR
- SWAN
- REFLECTION
- SPANGRAM: UGLY DUCKLING
- My score: Simple
- My score: Perfect
This was a pretty fun Strands puzzle, albeit a relatively easy one. Not as easy as yesterday, mind you.
The key here was finding one of the two bird-related words. The theme clue should have given you enough of an idea of what was going on that, if you were anything like me, you would have scanned the board for, say, chick, chicken, and so on. In my case I found duck, but it didn’t work, and then duck, which also didn’t work… and then I saw the first half and was able to play UGLYDUCKLING for the spangram.
SWAN was easy next, as were REFLECTION and BEAUTIFUL. MISFIT and JOURNEY – the latter of which was probably the most obscure of the words, in terms of its relationship to the theme – followed by a process of elimination afterwards.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands Answers (Sunday May 19, Game #77)
- EYES
- FIREWORK
- SKULL
- ROSE
- SPARKLES
- BOUQUET
- STAR TRUCK
- SPANGRAM: EMOJIS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, after Wordle and Connections. It is currently in beta and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I have a full guide to playing NYT Strands, complete with troubleshooting tips, so give that a read if you’re struggling to beat it every day.