Today's NYT Strands hints and answer — solutions to game #474, June 20

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 #474, 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 #474, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #474.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #474 is... "Just a dusting".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Fine grains".

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

• SLING
• PATCHING
• LATCH
• TRIED
• LAST
• NIGH
• RIDES
• MIRED
• SLAIN

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's POWDERS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #474?

Drumroll, please...

• BABY
• COCOA
• BAKING
• CHILI
• TALCUM
• ITCHING
• BLASTING

...and the spangram was POWDERS.

Strands #474

“Just a dusting”

💡🔵🔵🟡

🔵🔵🔵🔵

🔵

Hi Strands fans. At first when I saw the theme of "Just a dusting", I thought the puzzle was going to be about different kinds of sugar.

When that search proved to be fruitless, I used a clue, which revealed BABY. On its own, that didn't give me much, but with COCOA immediately above it, it became clear this was about POWDERS - the spangram spelt from right to left, which divided the grid in two.

With that established, I quickly found BAKING and CHILI to complete the top half, before moving to hunt down the three answers contained within the bottom half.

I found TALCUM in the bottom-right corner first, followed by ITCHING to its left. That just left BLASTING in the bottom-left to complete the puzzle - a word I'd never have gotten, if it wasn't the only option with the remaining characters!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Strands answers for game #473.

• GAMES
• MOTEL
• PHOTOS
• SCENERY
• PLAYLIST
• AUDIOBOOK

...and the spangram was ROADTRIP.

Strands #473

“Life is a highway”

💡🔵💡🔵

💡🔵💡🔵

🟡🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. As you can see from my scorecard above, I had a really hard time with today's puzzle. In my defense, roadtrips aren't such a big thing in the U.K, and even with four clues, I was essentially looking at four seemingly unconnected words.

These words were GAMES in the bottom-right corner, MOTEL in the top left, PHOTO on the right-hand side and SCENERY in the bottom left. Combined with the theme of "Life is a highway", I was baffled, having originally set out to find words to do with rest stops.

But with all of these in place, I was able to unpick the spangram: ROADTRIP, spelt backwards from bottom to top of the board.

By this point, I had just two anagrams to decode, and frankly they still seem a bit tenuous to me, even knowing the overall theme. YALLPIS on the left-hand side became PLAYLIST, while AKOUODIBO in the top right was unpicked to spell AUDIOBOOK.