Club Benefits
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 #696 as well as the answers, should it come to that.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #696.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #696 is... "Zen state".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "A moment of calm."
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- NICENESS
- EXIST
- TASTED
- DOME
- FAITH
- HEAD
- LIME
- DEFEAT
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 'M' and ends with 'S'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's MINDFULNESS.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #696?
Drumroll, please...
- FOCUS
- RELAX
- BREATHE
- LISTEN
- NOTICE
- MEDITATE
...and the spangram was MINDFULNESS.
Strands #696
“Zen state”
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Hi Strands fans. I was a bit slow out of the blocks this morning. Perhaps I need to take the puzzle's advice and meditate.
I ended up using two clues to get started. These revealed FOCUS and RELAX along the top, which left a neat gap for the spangram of MINDFULNESS to divide the board in two.
On the right-hand side, I found BREATHE towards the bottom and LISTEN above, leaving two answers to find on the opposite segment.
Ironically, it took me a while to notice NOTICE at the bottom of the grid. But when I did, I was left with the most obvious answer of all to complete the puzzle: MEDITATE.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #695.
- SPOT
- BUDDY
- BANDIT
- SCRUFFY
- BLUE
- CHAMP
- SCOUT
- ROVER
...and the spangram was HEREBOY.
Strands #695
“Canine classics”
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Hi Strands fans. A nice easy one today, with the word "canine" in the theme revealing that this would be about dogs straight away. In fact, the only surprise was that there was no room for "Snoopy" in the list.
I found SPOT at the bottom of the board, with BUDDY to its right. SCRUFFY above them helped me find the spangram of HEREBOY spelt across the grid from left to right.
That isolated BANDIT in the bottom-left corner, leaving just the top half to go.
These were clearly going to be smaller answers, with four words split between 19 characters. I duly found BLUE spelt backwards along the left-hand side, followed by CHAMP to its left. That just left ROVER and SCOUT to the right to complete the puzzle.
