A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, February 5 (game #704).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #705) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Let's face it
NYT Strands today (game #705) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
BROKE
SWORE
THERE
SHUT
MATE
HERO
RAISIN
NYT Strands today (game #705) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 8 letters
NYT Strands today (game #705) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First side: bottom, 3rd column
Last side: top, 4th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #705) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #705, are…
EYES
CHEEKS
NOSE
BROWS
MOUTH
HAIRLINE
FOREHEAD
SPANGRAM: FEATURES
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
Aside from the rare bottom-to-top spangram, this was a fairly straightforward search for facial FEATURES.
Although having said that, after eliminating the obvious EYES, CHEEKS, NOSE, BROWS, and MOUTH I was left with a large chunk of space and inability to see the two remaining words.
After some epic staring I finally tapped out HAIRLINE and FOREHEAD – the two most common features to be altered by cosmetic procedures. As someone with a rapidly receding hairline and canyons forming in my wrinkled forehead, I’m considering both once my lottery winnings arrive.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, February 5, game #704)
BOROUGHS
SENSES
OCEANS
VOWELS
TOES
WEEKDAYS
SPANGRAM: GIVEMEFIVE
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
Mozilla Firefox 148 will soon get an AI kill switch
This addition can disable all AI features in one go
You’ll also be able to disable AI tools individually, if you like
Firefox is often chosen by people who dislike the direction Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers are taking. And as browser makers rush to stuff their products with as much artificial intelligence (AI) as possible, Firefox is taking a different tack, introducing an “AI kill switch” that disables all AI features in the Mozilla app.
In a blog post about the decision, Mozilla says users will get the feature with the Firefox 148 update, which is set to arrive on February 24. Not only will this let you manage individual AI features within the browser, but you’ll also be able to switch them off entirely with a single click.
Aside from the all-in-one kill switch, you’ll be able to choose whether to enable or disable the following features: translations, alt text in PDF files, AI-powered tab grouping, link previews, and the AI chatbot that’s located in the browser’s sidebar.
Mozilla caused something of a backlash late in 2025 when it announced it would bring AI features to the Firefox browser. Although these run on your device – meaning your information is not sent to any company’s cloud servers – many users were unhappy with the advent of AI features in a browser like Firefox, which has often sought to differentiate itself from rival offerings.
Banish AI from your browser
Mozilla’s latest move seems to have met with a positive reaction from some sections of the internet. Responding to the announcement on Reddit, user jpsreddit85 quipped, “Says a lot about the future state of AI when the most requested feature is to disable it.” User David-J, meanwhile, commented that “Someone is actually reading the room.”
As a long-time Firefox user, this feels like the right move by Mozilla. AI is controversial at the best of times, but especially so among Firefox users, who pride themselves on their independence and generally seem less on board with AI than many internet users.
Adding AI to Firefox was always going to be a risky move by Mozilla, given the userbase’s sentiments – adding a way to block it entirely is a sensible way to win back support.
That said, this seems to be a fairly isolated move in the world of web browsers. Chrome has a near-monopoly on browsers, and its creator, Google, a major AI investor, has added numerous AI features to the app. Microsoft and Apple, makers of Edge and Safari, are equally committed to AI.
Very few browsers have added an AI kill switch like Firefox's, though privacy-focused alternatives like Brave and DuckDuckGo can also be customized in this way. That all means that if you’re sick of AI in your browser, there are options available to you – you just need to avoid the biggest players.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, February 4 (game #703).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #704) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Quint-essential
NYT Strands today (game #704) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
SIEVE
STOLE
FROM
VIBES
SALON
SLOW
NYT Strands today (game #704) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 10 letters
NYT Strands today (game #704) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First side: top, 3rd column
Last side: bottom, 6th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #704) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #704, are…
BOROUGHS
SENSES
OCEANS
VOWELS
TOES
WEEKDAYS
SPANGRAM: GIVEMEFIVE
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
The theme did give things away today with its “quint-essential” pun, although I did initially think we may be looking for five-letter words rather than things there are five of.
Seeing BOROUGHS ended that notion and immediately triggered memories of the Beastie Boys' track To the 5 Boroughs. SENSES, meanwhile, automatically made me think of the movie The Sixth Sense. OCEANS and VOWELS I got from thinking of other famous five things, but I don’t think I would have ever arrived at TOES or WEEKDAYS.
My favourite thing featuring five things is the Olympic Rings, which seeing as the Winter games start tomorrow would have been a nice touch – but difficult to fit in.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, February 4, game #703)
COLLECTIBLE
DICE
GAME
MINIATURE
PUZZLE
MODEL
SPANGRAM: HOBBYSHOP
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
While it seems that software firms want to put AI into everything, many creative people want tools that are AI-free. I'm one of them. I'm not against AI by any means – I use AI tools in music, and I've found AI-based transcription to be a godsend (once I take out the bits it makes up) – but as a professional writer and author, generative AI is a no-no for me for multiple reasons.
A big one for me and for many other writers is that genAI writing is based in part on pirating our books: some of my own books and books by my writer friends are in the Anthropic dataset (and because I’m not in the US, I'm not eligible for any of the $1.5 billion settlement that came from the class action lawsuit against the company).
One of the results of that is that many literary magazines and other important outlets now have a strict "no AI for anything" policy.
There are more practical everyday issues too. I've found that AI-powered helpers tend to make my writing worse and the writing process more difficult. I've turned off AI-based autocorrect that had me constantly fixing ridiculous changes it made to my error-free typing, and I've shuddered as AI editing tools turned characterful writing into LinkedIn thought leader-style corporate slop.
So, what can writers use instead? Here are seven excellent options from distraction-free desktops to print and ebook producers.
The free, open source, old-school Microsoft Office alternative isn't the prettiest app suite out there, I know. But it's a very good place to write words, because it gets out of your way and lets you focus on the words you're writing. It has Master Documents so you can break even the biggest writing projects into more manageable chunks, it has the Navigator noting every use of the H1 heading style so you can easily find your way around chapters, and because it runs locally rather than in the cloud it's always available even when Wi-Fi isn't.
Created by screenwriter Lauri-Matti Parppei for other screenwriters (and since extended to cover novel writing too), Beat is a clean, straightforward and very fast writing app that features an outliner, distraction-free writing, good file format support, automatic formatting and on the Mac, a library of plugins to expand its features. The Mac version is free and open source; sales from the iOS/iPadOS version help Parppei keep the lights on.
Ulysses has been my go-to writing app for many years now. It's a Markdown-based writing environment that runs very quickly and keeps features to a minimum, and I love it so much I wrote an entire article about how good it is. One of its best features is its ability to export your work to almost anything: content management systems, blogging platforms, ebooks and all the key text and document formats. It's very customizable and has tiny system requirements because working in plain text, which is what Markdown effectively is, isn't going to make even the most modest Mac break sweat. It's good on iOS/iPadOS too, and syncs over iCloud.
Like Ulysses iA Writer is a stripped-down, lightning fast writing environment with superb export options, but while the app doesn't use AI itself – hence its inclusion here – its creators have taken an interesting approach to the technology, which they've written about in detail. Instead of integrating AI writing tools into their apps, they've described it as a problem to solve as AI gets everywhere – and their solution is called Authorship. Authorship is in the Mac, iPhone and iPad versions of the app and it can track changes made by the likes of Apple's AI writing tools as well as text copied from third party generative AI.
I've written entire books in Scrivener, and that's what it was made for: in addition to its writing tools it's also an excellent research and ideas organiser, so you can have notes about your characters, photos of locations you want to use, snippets of information you want to include and anything else relevant to your book right there in the app. It's overkill if you only want to write short pieces, but if you want an app that can take you from the first blank page to a fully finished manuscript and ebook, Scrivener is superb.
Storyist is a good-looking and very friendly writing app aimed at novelists and screenwriters, and it contains some great tools to help you create your masterpiece including snippets for commonly used text, print-ready PDF output, an excellent outliner and an extensive selection of customisable style sheets for specific kinds of publication. It's quite similar to Scrivener, albeit a bit less intimidating-looking.
yWriter promises that it won't write your novel, suggest plot ideas or perform any creative tasks whatsoever. It's a stripped-back writing app that encourages you to think of your story in terms of scenes rather than chapters, and to use metadata: project notes, objects used in the scene, which character's viewpoint is being used, whether the scene is a draft or complete and so on. The Mac app is still in beta and that's currently closed, but if you have an Apple Silicon Mac you can run the iOS version.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, February 3 (game #702).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #703) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… For the enthusiast
NYT Strands today (game #703) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
POLL
CAGE
BITE
TRIBUNE
COLLEGE
PLUMB
NYT Strands today (game #703) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 9 letters
NYT Strands today (game #703) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First side: top, 3rd column
Last side: bottom, 5th column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #703) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #703, are…
COLLECTIBLE
DICE
GAME
MINIATURE
PUZZLE
MODEL
SPANGRAM: HOBBYSHOP
My rating: Hard
My score: Perfect
Retrospectively, I can see that this game was about Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy role playing game that, according to legend, was first played in February 1974.
But initially, and while I was searching, I believed it was just about hobbies, something that spotting HOBBYSHOP confirmed.
The real thrill for me in this game was spotting two seven-letter non-game words as I usually only see four-letter words as I move round the boards in need of a hint.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, February 3, game #702)
CARET
TILDE
UNDERSCORE
ASTERISK
HASHTAG
BRACKET
SPANGRAM: SYMBOL
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Monday, February 2 (game #1470).
Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,400 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.
Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
Quordle today (game #1471) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 5*.
* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).
Quordle today (game #1471) - hint #2 - repeated letters
Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?
• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.
Quordle today (game #1471) - hint #3 - uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.
A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Monday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, February 2 (game #701).
Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.
NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… On key
NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #2 - clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
TASK
BRASH
SLIDE
RACK
ROCK
BOOK
NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #3 - spangram letters
How many letters are in today's spangram?
• Spangram has 6 letters
NYT Strands today (game #702) - hint #4 - spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?
First side: left, 5th row
Last side: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #702) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #702, are…
CARET
TILDE
UNDERSCORE
ASTERISK
HASHTAG
BRACKET
SPANGRAM: SYMBOL
My rating: Hard
My score: 2 hints
It wasn’t until I got UNDERSCORE that I finally realized that the “key” in the theme referred to a keyboard key.
Prior to that, two hints had given me CARET and TILDE, which had left me in the dark. CARET (^) incidentally is a symbol I usually use to indicate up, but is more commonly used to indicate some missing punctuation, while TILDE (~) is the wavy dash that is often used to indicate approximately.
After getting the spangram I was left with the more obvious keyboard symbols, including the 2012 word of the year – HASHTAG.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday, February 2, game #701)
PENGUIN
OSTRICH
RHEA
CONDOR
PELICAN
CASSOWARY
SPANGRAM: BIGBIRDS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.
