NYT Strands #78 - hints, spangram, and answers for game May 20th

Afraid to lose your Strands’ streak? We are here to help you out with some clues and answers.

While it’s definitely more fun to solve puzzles on your own, I know how frustrating it can sometimes be, especially with games from the New York Times.

Today’s puzzle is a nice way to ease into the week and offers — at least it did to me — a little glimpse into our childhood.

However, as always, I needed some clues to get started. So, in case you need a little push too, I’m about to give you some hints and answers to keep that streak going.

Useful tips

Before we dive into today's Strands hints, there are a couple of things you might want to try out before looking for external help.

First, remember that Strands allows you to connect letters in any direction, so don’t limit yourself to straight lines. Explore all directions!

Personally, I tend to start by looking for common letter combinations and endings like ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ among others. Also, when I see the letter ‘H’, I suspect it might be next to the letter ‘S’ or ‘C’, which gives me some idea of what I am looking at.

You might also want to start with the spangram. Since it touches the opposite sides of the board, I usually start from the left side of the board and try to find a path to the other side. It doesn’t always work, but finding that long word that divides the grid also helps to break the grid into smaller sections.

I also strongly recommend focusing on the topic. If the topic is related to flavors and you’ve discovered ‘bitter,’ think of other similar words like ‘sweet’ and ‘sour’.

What’s the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

Today’s NYT Strands topic is “Fowl fairy tale.”

How many words does today’s NYT Strands have?

Today’s NYT Strands have 6 words. They’re 4-12 letters long.

What words will earn me clues?

The 6x8 grid also contains words not related to today’s topics. While they won’t count as answer words, discovering those will earn you hints. Some of the hidden words in today’s puzzle are:

BEAN

BLINK

FLAW

LICK

DULL

FULL

These six words will earn you two hints. Honestly, I don’t believe you’ll need any more for this one.

A hint for today's spangram

Today’s word (actually, it’s two) is the name of a fairy tale.

A second hint for today’s spangram

It was written by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen and originally published on November 11, 1843.

How many letters does today’s spangram have?

Today’s spangram consists of 12 letters, and starts with ‘U’ and ends with ‘G’.

Where does today’s spangram start and end?

Today’s spangram starts at column 8, row 5, and ends at column 1, row 6.

DISCLAIMER: The text and visuals below contain today’s NYT Strands answers.

May 20th NYT Strands spangram:

UGLY DUCKLING

May 20th NYT Strands answers:

SWAN

REFLECTION

MISFIT

JOURNEY

BEAUTIFUL

UGLY DUCKLING

How to play NYT Strands?

Strands is yet another popular game you can play via the New York Times website. The puzzle contains a 6x8 grid. You need to find all the theme-related words to solve the puzzle.

The rules:

• Theme words fill the board entirely.

• Found theme words stay highlighted in blue.

• The puzzle contains one spangram – a related word that touches two opposite sides of the grid. It may consist of two words.

• Try looking for non-topical words, too, as discovering three not related words will earn you one hint.

When did the Strands game start?

Strands is a part of the widely popular NYT Games library that is probably best known for Wordle – another game we’ve been playing and can help you out with by giving hints.

Strands is a relatively new game, released in March 2024. It was created by Juliette Seive, a research director of NYT Games.