Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle — "Looking for a mate" — is painfully obscure, even when you know what it's getting at.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #75, 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 #75, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #75.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #75 is... "Looking for a mate"
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Better in twos"
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- ROOK
- NAPE
- BETTER
- REEK
- SPOTTED
- GAIN
- DOTING
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'P' and ends with 'D'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's PAIRED.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #75?
Drumroll, please...
- WING
- TONG
- BOOKEND
- EARPLUG
- CHOPSTICK
- MITTEN
- PLIER
...and the spangram was PAIRED.
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Hi Strands fans. This one is horrible, even once you've decoded the theme.
As you can see, I ended up using two clues right away, and even then it took me a while to cotton on what WING and TONG had in common.
When I figured out this wasn't about dating (wingman?) I finally appreciated that the revealed words have in common is that you need two of them to function.
With that, I figured out the spangram: PAIRED.
It still wasn't plain sailing, but I saw BOOKEND next (having already tried 'book' to earn one of those clues). That left only EARPLUG to finish the bottom half of the board.
There were three words still hidden in the top half, and fortunately I spotted the longest one (CHOPSTICK) first. That made finding MITTEN easy enough - just as well, as I doubt I'd have gotten PLIER any other way.
Not a fun puzzle today, in my view - a bit too obscure to be enjoyable. Hopefully tomorrow's will put that right.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #74 right here.
