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 #614, as well as the answers, should it come to that.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #614.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #614 is... "Encuentra el ritmo".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Find the rhythm" (that's the Spanish to English translation).
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- SALTS
- NOTES
- TIARA
- TEAMS
- ROACH
- SANTA
- ARCH
- BATON
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 'L' and ends with 'C'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's LATINMUSIC.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #614?
Drumroll, please...
- SAMBA
- TANGO
- SALSA
- REGGAETON
- MARIACHI
- TEJANO
...and the spangram was LATINMUSIC.
Strands #614
“Encuentra el ritmo”
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Hi Strands fans. This was a nasty puzzle for me, as I know precious little about Latin music, which isn't that big on my side of the Atlantic.
It didn't help that I know no Spanish (French or German is typically taught as a second language in British schools), so I had to look up what the theme of "Encuentra el ritmo" meant before I could begin.
It translates as "Find the rhythm", which put me on the right track. I quickly found SAMBA in the top-left corner, followed by TANGO to its right. These helped me get the spangram of LATINMUSIC to split the board in two.
I then spotted SALSA in the bottom-right corner, which helped me find REGGAETON to its left (a genre I have never heard of, but I didn't have much choice with the remaining letters).
I then found MARIACHI in the top-right corner, which left one word to find.
But for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what the anagram of TEONAJ meant. A clue would just reveal the letters I already knew I needed, so I just had to keep hammering random combinations until something worked.
Eventually I found it. It was TEJANO, another word that's not part of the British English vocabulary, to cap a very frustrating puzzle.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #613.
- MAGIC
- ETERNAL
- WINDY
- MOTOR
- MUSIC
- GOLDEN
- EMERALD
...and the spangram was NICKNAME.
Strands #613
“___ City”
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Hi Strands fans. I found today's puzzle really tricky. As a Brit, I just wasn't familiar with a lot of the nicknames for the American cities, and it cost me today.
I used a clue to get started, which revealed MAGIC (Miami?). While I didn't get the reference, I now knew that this was nicknames rather than actual points on a map, so was able to get ETERNAL in the top-right corner (Rome), followed by WINDY diagonally opposite (Chicago).
After this, I was stumped again, so had to use two clues. The first revealed MOTOR (Detroit?) and the second MUSIC (Nashville?).
These cleared a path for the spangram that I should have figured out on my own: NICKNAME.
The last two words were isolated within their own sections which meant I just had to decode a pair of anagrams. I found GOLDEN (San Francisco?) on the right-hand side, with EMERALD (Seattle?) in the top-left corner to complete the puzzle.
