NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #174 (Saturday, August 24 2024)

NYT Strands on a cellphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
Strands today: Quick menu

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle theme — "Crumby theme" — is a really horrible one if you happen to be outside the United States.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #174, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #174, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #174.  

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #174 is... "Crumby theme".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "American snacks".

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

  • WRIST
  • SATIN
  • FILM
  • NAIL
  • FLATS
  • RATED
  • CHAINS

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'C' and ends in 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's CRACKERS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #174?

Drumroll, please...

  • RICE
  • SODA
  • WATER
  • ANIMAL
  • OYSTER
  • GOLDFISH
  • SALTINE

Strands #174

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

..and the spangram was CRACKERS.

Strands #174

“Crumby theme”

💡🔵💡🔵

🔵💡🔵🔵

🟡🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. What an awful puzzle for anyone outside of the United States. It turns out "Crumby theme" refers to different kinds of crackers - many of which simply aren't available in the UK, making this a tedious game of trial and error, even after I'd figured out what it was getting at.

That in itself took three clues. These revealed RICE and SODA to begin with, which cleared enough for me to find WATER in the bottom left. What do these things have in common? Maybe they're ingredients? I was clueless, so I had to use another clue which revealed ANIMAL.

I found OYSTER after this by trial and error, and it was only at this point that I realized I'd heard of "rice crackers", "animal crackers" and "oyster crackers", even though I've never consumed any of them. Sure enough, I found the word CRACKERS splitting the board in two.

Only two answers were left to find. GOLDFISH was another one I'd heard of, and that just left SALTINE to complete the puzzle.

After three tough Strands games in a row, I'm really hoping for something that I know about tomorrow...

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #173 right here.

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. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

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