NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Monday, May 20 (game #78)

May 19, 2024

If you found yesterday’s Strands puzzle from the NYT to be a little too easy, then fear not – today’s is back to normal. If it’s too tricky for you, you can read my hints below. If not, you can skip straight to my commentary on the game.

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 #78) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Fowl fairy tale

NYT Strands today (game #78) – hint #2 – clue words

What are some good clue words today?

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

• WEST

• STILT

• MIST

• BEAU

• BEAN

• BANK

NYT Strands today (game #78) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

• Those awkward early years

NYT Strands today (game #78) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

• First: right, 5th row

• Last: left, 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 #78) – the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 78 on a blue background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #78, are…

JOURNEY
BEAUTIFUL
MISFIT
SWAN
REFLECTION
SPANGRAM: UGLYDUCKLING

My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect

This was a rather fun Strands puzzle, albeit another relatively easy one. Not quite as easy as yesterday’s, mind.

The key here was in 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 like me, you would have scanned the board for the likes of chick, chicken and so on. In my case, I found duck, but it didn’t work, then duckling, which also didn’t work… and then I spotted the first half and was able to play UGLYDUCKLING for the spangram.

SWAN was easy after that, as were REFLECTION and BEAUTIFUL. MISFIT and JOURNEY – the latter of which was probably the most obscure of the words, in terms of its relation to the theme – followed by a process of elimination after that.

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

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Sunday 19 May, game #77)

EYES
FIRE
SKULL
ROSE
SPARKLES
BOUQUET
STARSTRUCK
SPANGRAM: EMOJIS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s currently in Beta 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.

Source

If you found yesterday’s Strands puzzle from the NYT to be a little too easy, then fear not – today’s is back to normal. If it’s too tricky for you, you can read my hints below. If not, you can skip straight to my commentary on the game. SPOILER WARNING:…