NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #79 (Tuesday, May 21 2024)

NYT Strands on a cellphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
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Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle — "At the bar" — probably isn't what you're immediately thinking of.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #79, 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 #79, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #79.  

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #79 is... "At the bar"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "A click of the mouse."

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

  • VOTES
  • MYSELF
  • WINES
  • LIST
  • LIFE
  • TIDE
  • STORE

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

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's MENUITEMS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #79?

Drumroll, please...

  • TOOLS
  • HISTORY
  • WINDOW
  • FILE
  • EDIT
  • FAVORITES
  • HELP

Strands #79

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was MENUITEMS.

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Hi Strands fans. What a devious puzzle this was! I - like I imagine most people - immediately started looking for the names of alcoholic drinks when I saw the them was "At the bar". Indeed, I was shocked when "WINELIST" - which you can write from left to right across the board - wasn't the spangram!

In fact, I was at a total loss as to what it could be for quite a while, and only got my first word on the board when looking for wrong answers for the hints section above. 

TOOLS turned out to be correct, which was baffling to me. I was even more baffled when HISTORY also proved to be correct - what on earth do these two words have in common?

It was then I got the spangram, but in my head I was still thinking about bars and restaurants when I spelled out MENUITEMS from top to bottom. It was only when I put my three words together that I realized this had to be about the taskbar on a computer.

From there, everything fell into place quite quickly. WINDOW was an obvious one in the top left-hand corner, as was FILE in the bottom right. EDIT neatly finished off the right-hand side.

That left just two to find on the left quadrant, and FAVORITES was pretty easy to spot at the bottom. From there, only four letters remained: I decoded ELHP into HELP 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 #78 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.