NYT Strands today – hints, answers and spangram for Tuesday May 7 (game #65)
Consider this your warning: today’s Strands puzzle from the NYT is really, really hard. Well, at least that was my experience; Maybe you’re a lot smarter than me. But if you’re having trouble, I have some helpful tips below.
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 #65) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Can you dig it?
NYT Strands Today (Game #65) – Hint #2 – Clue Words
What are good keywords these days?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hint system.
• DELAY
• BEGAN
• MUST
• SLOPE
• Slap
• EDGE
NYT Strands today (game #65) – hint #3 – spangram
What’s a hint for today’s spangram?
• Everything that glitters
NYT Strands Today (Game #65) – Hint #4 – Spangram Position
Which two sides of the board do today’s spangrams touch?
• First: top, 1st column
• Second: bottom, 3rd column
Okay, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands Today (Game #65) – The Answers
The answers to today’s Strands, game #65, are…
- GOLD
- SILVER
- BUYER
- ANTIMONY
- ARSENIC
- BISMUTH
- SPANGRAM: HEAVY METAL
- My score: Very difficult
- My score: Two tips
This may be arrogance on my part, but I have come to feel that I should always get a perfect score on the Strands. After all, it is possible to solve it by brute force if necessary, by simply playing words until something turns blue (or yellow), and never using a hint. However, there’s always an algorithm going on between time and reward in my head, and today, after about 30 minutes of fruitless searching, I decided I’d had enough.
The clue phrase – “Can you dig it?” – implied ‘underground’, but I found songs like HOLE and EARTH without either changing color. So I ended up using a hint and got GOLD. Great – I should be able to fix it now without any hassle. Except… from then on it got harder. SILVER and COPPER were easy enough, and ANTIMONY (which I’ve never heard of) was revealed for the simple reason that there was now nothing else that would fit in that space. Likewise, HEAVYMETAL (nice pun, NYT) was easy to find. But the last two… wow! I ended up having to use a second hint to reveal ARSENIC, which I didn’t even know was a metal, before solving standard BISMUTH (never heard of it).
How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.
Yesterday’s NYT Strands Answers (Monday May 6, Game #64)
- LETTER
- BILL
- MAGAZINE
- POSTCARD
- INVITATION
- PACKAGE
- SNAPRAM: SNAILMAIL
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.