It’s time to tackle another of the NYT’s Strands puzzles. The goal here is to discover a series of words hidden in a grid of letters and united by one theme.
It’s easy to pick up, often hard to solve, and a great addition to your daily routine if you already play Wordle and Connections. So read on for some helpful tips and my commentary on today’s Strands puzzle.
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 #54) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Staff
NYT Strands Today (Game #54) – Hint #2 – Clue Words
What are good keywords these days?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hint system.
• JAVELIN
• SIGN
• RAPID
• FITTER
• BEAUTIFUL
• CLOSE
NYT Strands today (game #54) – hint #3 – spangram
What’s a hint for today’s spangram?
• Sheet music
NYT Strands Today (Game #54) – Hint #4 – Spangram Position
Where does today’s spangram begin and end?
• Start: bottom, 3rd column
• End: top, 5th column
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands Today (Game #54) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #54, are…
- SHARP
- NATURALLY
- KEY
- RIGHT
- SIGNATURE
- REST
- MEASURING UNIT
- SPANGRAM: NOTATION
- My score: Very difficult
- My score: Perfect
You may look at my assessment above and think there is an inconsistency; why do I describe it as ‘very difficult’ when I got a perfect score? Well, you wouldn’t wonder why if you had watched me struggle for an hour to solve this problem!
In my defense, the match was against me from the start. I’ve never learned a musical instrument, except for a few weeks of playing the recorder at school when I was about six, until it was politely suggested that I might want to try something different, like standing in the corner watching everyone else. I’m not musical.
Plus, today’s theme tip, “Staff Members,” meant nothing to me. In the UK we use the term ‘staff’ rather than ‘staff’, so the staff members just made me think about possible terms for employees of some kind.
I was completely baffled, even when I came across SHARP purely by chance. Actually, it wasn’t until I came across CLEF and FLAT that I realized what was needed here. The problem was that my knowledge wasn’t strong enough to know what the other answers might be – so I ended up solving it all by brute force. Every word. Not fun.
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands Answers (Thursday April 25, Game #53)
- CROWN
- HELMET
- CAP
- BERET
- FEDOR
- CAP
- TURBAN
- BANGRAM: HEADGEAR
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.