NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #319 (Thursday, January 16 2025)

NYT Strands on a cellphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
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Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Bar association" — is tricky even when you know what it means.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #319, 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 #319, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #319.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #319 is... "Bar association".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Can I get you a drink?"

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

  • MOCK
  • CROAK
  • ROCK
  • RAMS
  • KITE
  • PASTE
  • SCAR

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's COCKTAILS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #319?

Drumroll, please...

  • MARTINI
  • SIDECAR
  • STINGER
  • ZOMBIE
  • COSMOPOLITAN

Strands #319

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was COCKTAILS.

Strands #319

“Bar association”

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Hi Strands fans. I found today's puzzle rather tricky, even though I saw through the pun of the theme - "Bar association" - right away.

I was immediately on the hunt for words associated with alcohol and connected the spangram of COCKTAILS right away.

That made things easier, but I still had a hard time finding everything. The right-hand side didn't cause me too many problems, and I was able to connect MARTINI in the top right and SIDECAR below it with relative ease. STINGER was all that could be made with the remaining letters on this side of the grid.

But the two words on the left caused me far more problems, as I assumed they may be intertwined.

After more time than I'd care to admit, it finally clicked that the stray 'Z' was part of ZOMBIE, and that just left the anagram of "SOMOCILTNOA" to decode. It was, of course, COSMOPOLITAN.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #318 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.