Today's NYT Strands hints and answer: solutions to game #800, May 12

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 #800 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 #800, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #800.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #800 is... "Quite the pair."

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Cover those legs".

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

• RANTS
• PASTA
• PASTOR
• LAIRY
• PLAZA
• CROFT
• RAIL

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 'F' and ends in 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's FANCYPANTS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #800?

Drumroll, please...

• HAREM
• GAUCHO
• TUXEDO
• PALAZZO
• SAILOR
• TOREADOR

...and the spangram was FANCYPANTS.

Strands #800

“Quite the pair”

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Hi Strands fans. I really went the wrong way on this one.

I saw the theme of "Quite the pair" and assumed this would be about duos - especially when I could see the word "deux" at the bottom. In my head, I had a spangram of "what a to-deux" or similar lined up.

But, of course, there was no such thing, because the theme was actually related to pants, something that became clear to me after I used two clues revealing HAREM and GAUCHO in the top-left of the board.

I then found TUXEDO in the bottom-right corner, followed by PALAZZO in the top right. SAILOR was in the bottom-right corner - a word discovered by chance, rather than me being familiar with the style of pants.

Still, I had enough to get the spangram now: FANCYPANTS spelt across the middle of the board. That just left TOREADOR below it to complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #799.

• VARIETY
• JUMBLE
• HODGEPODGE
• RAGBAG
• MISHMASH

...and the spangram was ODDSANDENDS.

Strands #799

“A nice medley”

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Hi Strands fans. A slightly tricky one today. "Medley", to me, feels musical, and even when I connected VARIETY in the middle of the board, I was somewhat stumped, so used a clue.

That clue revealed JUMBLE in the middle of the grid, and I then spotted HODGEPODGE in the top-left corner. This, combined with my earlier answer of VARIETY, neatly blocked off RAGBAG in the top-right corner.

Two answers were left to find, including the spangram, which I got first. It was ODDSANDENDS, spreading from the middle of the left-hand side to the center of the bottom row, via right-hand corner. That just left MISHMASH in the gap to finish the puzzle.