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 #630, as well as the answers, should it come to that.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #630.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #630 is... "Sweet tooth".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Sugar rush".
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- STRANDS
- WATCH
- TOADS
- BRANDS
- DAISY
- HATCH
- DALES
- STRICT
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 'C' and ends with 'E'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's CANDYAISLE.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #630?
Drumroll, please...
- DOTS
- NERDS
- RUNTS
- STARBURST
- WHATCHAMACALLIT
...and the spangram was CANDYAISLE.
Strands #630
“Sweet tooth”
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Hi Strands fans. For the second day running, a puzzled aimed squarely at American players.
As a Brit, I really struggled today, despite correctly intuiting that the topic was going to be about candy of some kind almost immediately. We only have two of the five products listed on my side of the Atlantic, so I was always on a hiding to nothing.
It had to be nothing but clues for me today. The first gave me DOTS, which I'm not familiar with, and the second NERDS which I am. A third gave me RUNTS, and I was finally able to get one under my own steam with STARBURST, which we do have here.
I was completely stumped for the last one, however. WHATCHAMACALLIT may be the longest answer ever recorded in Strands, taking up nearly half the board on its own.
That left the spangram of CANDYAISLE to complete a puzzle that was, for me, near impossible. Hopefully I'll be back on familiar ground again tomorrow.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #629.
- BEARS
- LIONS
- BULLDOGS
- TIGERS
- QUAKERS
- CRIMSON
...and the spangram was SPORTSTEAM.
Strands #629
“Ivy League”
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Hi Strands fans. Today's puzzle is horrible if you're not American, which made me relieved to get through using only one clue.
When I saw the theme of "Ivy League", I (rightly) assumed it was to do with academic institutions like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Brown. What I didn't know was the name of each of these institutions' sports teams, which isn't everyday knowledge to Brits like me.
After failing to find the names of the universities themselves, I used a clue which revealed BEARS. Thankfully, I'm familiar enough with sports that I know a team nickname when I see one, and began looking for other likely names.
Having looked up each one since, I can now confirm for those as ignorant as I was which name goes with each institution. BEARS is Brown, and I then found LIONS (Columbia) in the bottom-right corner.
BULLDOGS (Yale) followed in the opposite corner, and I now had enough space cleared to get the spangram of SPORTSTEAM, spelt from top to bottom of the grid.
This made finding the last three quite a bit easier, and I found TIGERS (Princeton) in the bottom-left corner to complete the half.
I then figured out that the 'QU' in the top-right corner was part of QUAKERS (Pennsylvania). This in turn let me find CRIMSON (Harvard) below it to complete an extremely frustrating puzzle.
