NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, June 18 (game #472)

2 weeks ago 2

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, June 17 (game #471).

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 NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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 #472) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Down time

NYT Strands today (game #472) - hint #2 - clue words

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

CHOW
BOWL
HOWL
ELBOW
LOOM
GLOOM

NYT Strands today (game #472) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 7 letters

NYT Strands today (game #472) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First side: left, 5th row

Last side: right, 5th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #472) - the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 472 on a blue background

The answers to today's Strands, game #472, are…

BLUE
GLOOMY
TEARY
DOLEFUL
WOEBEGONE
MELANCHOLY
SPANGRAM: SADNESS

My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 hints

Hi all, it's Marc here, back for a few days while Johnny takes a well-earned break.

Everyone experiences a bit of SADNESS from time to time, and in my case it really hit me during the Covid pandemic in 2020. I suspect I'm far from alone in that respect, and went through most of the emotions in today's Strands, from BLUE to GLOOMY to MELANCHOLY.

That didn't make it any easier to solve the puzzle, admittedly; this was a tricky one from start to finish. I needed a hint to get the first one, BLUE, then together with the theme clue of 'Down time' was able to establish what the concept was.

SADNESS, the spangram, was an easy spot but after that I had to work for every word, and needed another hint for the impossibly complicated WOEBEGONE.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, June 17, game #471)

FINAGLE
FINESSE
CONTRIVE
ENGINEER
NEGOTIATE
SPANGRAM: FIGURE OUT

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which 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.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.

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