NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #287 (Sunday, December 15 2024)

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

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Moonlighting" — is pretty easy to interpret but does rely on knowledge of certain terminology.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #287, 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 #287, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #287.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #287 is... "Moonlighting"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Shape in the sky".

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

  • UBER
  • CRATER
  • GRATE
  • WANT
  • BUNG
  • WINNER
  • TEAR
  • CENTS

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's LUNARPHASE.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #287?

Drumroll, please...

  • WAXING
  • WANING
  • FULL
  • CRESCENT
  • QUARTER
  • GIBBOUS

Strands #287

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was LUNARPHASE.

Strands #287

“Moonlighting”

🟡🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. I found today's puzzle reasonably straightforward, until the last word. Thankfully that was just a case of trying the remaining letters until something worked, so I was still done reasonably quickly.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. When I saw the theme of "Moonlighting", it seemed obvious to me that this would be about phases of the moon. And sure enough, I saw the phrase LUNARPHASE written across the middle of the board from left to right.

Now it was just a case of remembering what those were. WAXING and WANING were the two which immediately came to mind, and I found them in the top two corners. Nestled between them and the spangram was FULL.

I was gifted a great start to the bottom half when I saw the word CRESCENT. The 'Q' and 'U' in the bottom right then reminded me of the word QUARTER, and I was suddenly left with just one answer to find.

I didn't know it. But with only one answer left to find, it was just a case of testing letters until something worked. I got there in the end with GIBBOUS, but it's not a word I've ever heard, so there was an element of luck involved!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #286 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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