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Today's NYT Strands hints and answer: solutions to game #694, January 26

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Need help with Strands #694? Here are some hints and the answers

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Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? No shame in that, and you've come to the right place. Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #694 as well as the answers, should it come to that.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #694.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #694 is... "Grape expectation".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "No point wine-ing about it."

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

  • MEAL
  • BEECH
  • STAND
  • LIFE
  • HEEL
  • THEM
  • LEST
  • HEAR

Still struggling? The spangram touches two opposite sides of the board (but can start and end anywhere), and will give you a hint about the connection between the answers. Today, it starts with 'B' and ends with 'E'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's BYTHEBOTTLE.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #694?

Drumroll, please...

  • MERLOT
  • SHIRAZ
  • MALBEC
  • ZINFANDEL
  • CHARDONNAY

Strands #694

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was BYTHEBOTTLE.

Strands #694

“Grape expectations”

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Hi Strands fans. The only difficult thing about this puzzle is that the word "wine" doesn't appear anywhere on the board. In fact, there aren't any 'W's either.

Still, with a theme like "Grape expectations", it felt like it was still going to be about wine, and that was quickly confirmed when I found MERLOT on the right-hand side. SHIRAZ was above it, and MALBEC below to reinforce the point.

I was then able to connect the spangram to the left of the three. BYTHEBOTTLE was spelt backwards from bottom to top in a shape kind of resembling a bottle opener.

Two words were left to find, and they were a little trickier. Eventually, I realized the 'Z' was part of ZINFANDEL, and that just left CHARDONNAY to complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #693.

Strands #693

(Image credit: Alan Martin)
  • PICKET
  • DOWEL
  • CANE
  • POLE
  • POST
  • BATON
  • STAKE

...and the spangram was STICKYSITUATION.

Strands #693

“The straight and narrow”

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Hi Strands fans. I'm sorry to say I still didn't quite cotton on to what this puzzle was about, even with three answers on the board.

It started well enough. I saw "situation" along the left-hand side and extended it to spell the spangram of STICKYSITUATION.

I then found PICKET and DOWEL to the right at the top of the board, and thought this was "sticky" in the sense of fastening things, rather than just being about sticks.

This misunderstanding meant that I had to use a clue, which revealed CANE. It was only then that I realized my mistake, and could look for other kinds of stick.

I duly found POST below it and POLE next to the spangram. BATON was between the two, which just left STAKE above to complete the puzzle.

Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.

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