NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #398 (Saturday, April 5 2025)

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Need help with Strands #398? Here are some hints and the answers

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Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "In it to win it" — is a little vague, and has at least one answer you may not be familiar with.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #398, 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 #398, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #398.

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #398 is... "In it to win it"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Back to winning ways".

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

  • BACKS
  • STEPS
  • SPEWS
  • PROSE
  • PLATES
  • PURSE
  • TETHER
  • HANGERS

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's GAMECHANGERS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #398?

Drumroll, please...

  • COMEBACK
  • ROUT
  • RALLY
  • UPSET
  • SWEEP
  • THREEPEAT

Strands #398

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was GAMECHANGERS.

Strands #398

“In it to win it”

🔵💡🔵💡

🔵🔵🟡🔵

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Hi Strands fans. Today's puzzle is pretty rough if you're not into sports. Even if you are, you might struggle if you're not American: I've never heard the word "threepeat" before in my life, here in the UK.

I actually got my first answer on the board without assistance: COMEBACK, coiled around the top-left corner. But then I needed a couple of clues, which revealed ROUT near the bottom and RALLY in the top-right corner.

I found UPSET between two of my answers at the top of the board, and that helped me find the spangram of GAMECHANGERS.

Now I had two anagrams to decode at the bottom of the grid. EPEWS pretty easily decoded to SWEEP, but it took a lot of trial and error to figure out TAEHTPREE. It was THREEPEAT, a word I've never heard before in my life.

A bit messy, but I got through it in the end!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #397 right here.

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Alan Martin
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.

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