NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #169 (Monday, August 19 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 — "Hear me roar!" — is pretty straightforward once you know what it's getting at .

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #169, 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 #169, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #169.  

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #169 is... "Hear me roar!"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Feline frisky?"

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

  • POLAR
  • DEATH
  • CHEAT
  • JOIN
  • HATER
  • RAGU
  • RAGE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it both starts with 'B' and ends with 'T'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's BIGCAT.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #169?

Drumroll, please...

  • LION
  • TIGER
  • JAGUAR
  • COUGAR
  • PANTHER
  • CHEETAH
  • LEOPARD

Strands #169

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was BIGCAT.

Strands #169

“Hear me roar!”

🔵🔵🔵🟡

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Hi Strands fans. Nice and easy this one. "Hear me roar!" immediately makes me think of one thing, and sure enough I found LION on the right-hand side almost immediately. Lions go paw-in-paw with TIGERs, and I found that answer in the bottom left-hand corner of the grid shortly afterwards.

Up to this point, I was wondering if it was 'animals that roar' in general, and it was only when I got JAGUAR stretching from the middle of the board to the bottom right-hand corner that I realized this was actually focused on big cats. Sure enough, the word BIGCAT crossed the board in the middle for the shortest possible spangram.

I'd already cleared the bottom half, so there were just three big cats left to find in the top segment. PANTHER was in the top right, with CHEETAH to its left. 

That just left the anagram of "POEALRD" to decipher. It was, of course, LEOPARD.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #168 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.