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NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, October 26 (game #237)

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.

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

NYT Strands today (game #237) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Sing-song

NYT Strands today (game #237) – hint #2 – clue words

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

RAILBALLBELLCABLESINGSALT

NYT Strands today (game #237) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

No instruments required

NYT Strands today (game #237) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

First: left, 5th row

Last: right, 6th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #237) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #237, are…

ARIABALLADSHANTYJINGLELULLABYSPIRITUALSPANGRAM: VOCALMUSIC

My rating: ModerateMy score: 2 hints

I was mildly concerned when I uncovered ARIA as the first answer today. It was sitting prominently in the top-left corner of the board, and given that the theme clue was ‘Sing-song’ it seemed likely to be a solution. And it was. However, all I know about ARIAs is that they are an opera thing – and I know about as much about opera as I do about brain surgery. Probably less, frankly.

Fortunately, this wasn’t a Strands puzzle all about opera, but rather one about VOCALMUSIC. Establishing that fact was not too tricky, because I spotted the MUSIC part of the spangram on account of the SIC part being right in the middle height-wise and on the edge of the board, which led me to the full phrase. I then got BALLAD and SHANTY easily enough because they were squashed in below the spangram. so far, so good.

Only then I stalled. I couldn’t think of any other types of VOCALMUSIC and needed to use hints for JINGLE and LULLABY. I added SPIRITUAL by default, but was rather disappointed I hadn’t done better here.

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

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Friday, 25 October, game #236)

CHIRPSQUEAKPURRGROWLBARKSQUAWKGRUNTMEOWSPANGRAM: PETSOUNDS

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.

I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.