NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #163 (Tuesday, August 13 2024)

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

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle theme — "Look it up!" — isn't too tough to decode, but the answers are almost all longer words (there are only five of them!).

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #163, 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 #163, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #163.  

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #163 is... "Look it up!"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "To the library!"

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

  • DEAR
  • NEAR
  • CHARD
  • CHANCER
  • FEET
  • SLATE

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's REFERENCE.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #163?

Drumroll, please...

  • THESAURUS
  • DICTIONARY
  • ALMANAC
  • HANDBOOK
  • ATLAS

Strands #163

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was REFERENCE.

Strands #163

“Look it up!”

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Hi Strands fans. I don't know about you, but I breezed through today's puzzle. A bit of a relief after the recent struggles.

When I saw the theme of "Look it up!", my thoughts immediately turned to reference books and sure enough I spotted THESAURUS in the bottom right corner, and DICTIONARY above it.

So, reference books then. That made the spangram easy to find: REFERENCE was to the left of THESAURUS, spelt backwards from the bottom of the grid to the top.

It turned out I'd already cleared the right side, so I turned to the left, and duly found ALMANAC in the bottom corner. HANDBOOK was immediately amove that, and that just left ATLAS to complete the puzzle. 

All done and dusted in a minute or so. Hopefully tomorrow's will be a bit more of a challenge!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #162 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.