NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Thursday, November 14 (game #256)

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games. And don’t be surprised if you need them for Wordle in particular, because today’s Wordle is so difficult it nearly cost me my 1,045-game streak.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert

Marc McLaren

NYT Strands today (game #256) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Name of the game

NYT Strands today (game #256) – hint #2 – clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

CART
CARD
CARDS
LUMP
LUMPS
LOCK

NYT Strands today (game #256) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

• It’s a mystery

NYT Strands today (game #256) – hint #4 – spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?

First: top, 3rd column

Last: bottom, 5th column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #256) – the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 256 on a blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #256, are…

PLUM
GREEN
PEACOCK
MUSTARD
ORCHID
SCARLET
SPANGRAM: CLUESUSPECTS

My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 hints

I have mixed feelings about today’s Strands puzzle. On the one hand, it’s a nicely challenging instalment that I had to use my brain (and memory) to solve. On the other, it has a couple of anomalies that slightly detract from the experience.

The theme here is CLUESUSPECTS, as the spangram has it, and setting aside the fact that it’s called CLUEDO in the UK, I have no issue with it as a concept. However, I am a little miffed about the fact that one of the answers is ORCHID. I’m not an expert, but my online research has led me to understand that ORCHID was only added as a character, in place of Mrs (or Chef) White in 2016, and was removed again in 2023. Given that CLUE/CLUEDO has been around since the 1940s, that seems an oddly short change to reflect here. Plus, Mrs SCARLET was called Mrs SCARLETT with two Ts from 1949 until 1963, then lost the second T in the US, then regained it in 2016. Which is fine – but then you have the SCARLET spelling from one era and the ORCHID character from another. It’s all just a little messy.

On the other hand, I’m being petty. This Strands puzzle is fine, though I needed two hints to establish what the concept actually was. Once I had it, it was easy enough to solve, even allowing for the slight weirdness around a couple of the answers. Anyway, it made me want to play it again for the first time in several decades, so that’s no bad thing.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, 13 November, game #255)

HUMAN
GIBBON
KANGAROO
PANGOLIN
MEERKAT
OSTRICH
SPANGRAM: BIPEDAL

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.