NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, November 15 (game #257) marc.mclaren@futurenet.com (Marc McLaren) | usagoldmines.com

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 #257) – hint #1 – today’s theme

NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #2 – clue words

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

• SCREE
• CREED
• CHIDE
• REED
• WARE
• RANG

NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #3 – spangram

NYT Strands today (game #257) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #257) – the answers

The answers to today’s Strands, game #257, are…

• KALE
• ICEBERG
• ROMAINE
• WATERCRESS
• RADICCHIO
• SPANGRAM: SALADGREENS

• My rating: Easy
• My score: 1 hint

I’m not a fan of salad and very rarely eat it, but even I was able to solve today’s easy Strands puzzle. I needed one hint to get started, admittedly, because the theme clue of ‘Dress for lunch’ was just a bit too far on the cryptic side. Strands is a little variable in this regard; some days the theme clues give the game away, some days they are only really helpful once you’ve used up a hint (or found an answer by accident).

That’s a hard thing to get right, though, and in fairness it was a simple task to find the likes of ICEBERG, ROMAINE, WATERCRESS and RADICCHIO once I had KALE on the board; even if you don’t eat these SALADGREENS you’ll surely recognize the names.

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

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 14 November, game #256)

• PLUM
• GREEN
• PEACOCK
• MUSTARD
• ORCHID
• SCARLET
• SPANGRAM: CLUESUSPECTS