NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #309 (Monday, January 6 2025)

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

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "In neutral" — is tricky at first, but becomes clear when you have a couple of answers on the board.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #309, 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 #309, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #309.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #309 is... "In neutral".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Inoffensive shades".

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

  • HOLY
  • REAP
  • WITH
  • WHINY
  • PAGE
  • GATES

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's OFFWHITES.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #309?

Drumroll, please...

  • CREAM
  • EGGSHELL
  • VANILLA
  • CHAMPAGNE
  • IVORY
  • LINEN

Strands #309

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was OFFWHITES.

Strands #309

“In neutral”

💡🔵🔵🔵

🟡🔵🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. When I saw the theme of "In neutral", I worried this was going to be about cars, and specifically gears.

Thankfully it wasn't, as I discovered when I used a clue to reveal CREAM. With that in place, I realized this was actually about neutral colors, and everything fell into place quite quickly as a result.

I immediately found EGGSHELL to its left and VANILLA to its right. That made it easy to spot the spangram than ran underneath all three answers, spelling out OFFWHITES from left to right.

Three answers were left to find in the second half of the grid. CHAMPAGNE was hidden in the bottom right, while IVORY was in the opposite corner. That just left LINEN to connect between them to complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #308 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.