NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #402 (Wednesday, April 9 2025)
Need help with Strands #402? Here are some hints and the answers

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "That's quite a (tasty) mouthful" — is just plain tough.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #402, 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 #402, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #402.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #402 is... "That's quite a (tasty) mouthful".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Long food names".
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- FLOUR
- CARE
- RATES
- FELON
- SAVALOY
- FALLS
- TOURS
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with F and ends with S.
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Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's FOURSYLLABELS.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #402?
Drumroll, please...
- ARUGULA
- AVOCADO
- CAULIFLOWER
- WATERMELON
...and the spangram was FOURSYLLABLES.
Strands #402
“That's quite a (tasty) mouthful”
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Hi Strands fans. A bit of a devious one this. The theme of "That's quite a (tasty) mouthful" makes it apparent this is about food, but what exactly?
Despite immediately finding "melon", which would be part of one of the later answers, I ended up using a clue which revealed ARUGULA in the bottom-left corner.
I then spotted AVOCADO diagonally opposite it, and in the gap between the two words was CAULIFLOWER.
I then returned to "melon" in the top corner, realizing it was part of WATERMELON.
What do these four foods have in common? They're all made up of FOURSYLLABLES, of course.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #401 right here.
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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