New month, same old (relatively new) NYT Strands. That means a 6x8 grid of letters, hidden within which are a number of answers grouped around a theme. It's brought to you by the people behind Wordle and Connections, and it's rather difficult. Read on for some hints.
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 #59) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… A token of our appreciation
NYT Strands today (game #59) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• BIRTH
• MOPE
• ARROW
• SHINE
• WIRE
• LOWER
NYT Strands today (game #59) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Pass go
NYT Strands today (game #59) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: top, 4th column
• End: 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 #59) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #59, are…
THIMBLE
IRON
SHIP
WHEELBARROW
RACECAR
PENGUIN
SPANGRAM: MONOPOLY
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
I loved MONOPOLY as a kid, although my sisters probably didn't love the zeal with which I would routinely bankrupt them. Anyway, this was a fun Strands puzzle, albeit not too taxing.
Four-letter words are the easiest to find in Strands, so it always helps when there are a couple of them among the answers. The two hidden within today's puzzle – IRON and SHIP – were enough for me to confirm what the theme here was, when added to the hint of 'A token of our appreciation'.
The only issue was that I have no idea what the tokens in MONOPOLY are these days. When did a PENGUIN get added? But finding the spangram was very easy once I knew what I was looking for, and that pointed the way to the likes of THIMBLE and RACECAR once the board had some structure.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 30 April, game #58)
MAYO
TZATZIKI
KETCHUP
SRIRACHA
AIOLI
MUSTARD
SPANGRAM: CONDIMENT
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Chrome’s address bar has evolved to become a powerful tool beyond being a place to type in website URLs – Google calls it the ‘omnibox’ because it’s also a search field, as well as allowing you to carry out lots of other tasks – and it's about to get a whole lot smarter, and better able to understand what you’re looking for, thanks to machine learning.
Chrome’s omnibox will be equipped to give more precise and more relevant suggestions when you’re using Chrome, and as you use Chrome over time, the AI models behind it should improve your search suggestions thanks to upgraded 'relevance scoring'.
Announcing the new capability in a post on the Google Chromium blog, Chrome omnibox engineering lead Justin Donnelly said he’d polled colleagues asking for ways to improve the omnibox, and “The number one answer I heard was ‘improve the scoring system.’” According to XDA Developers, this scoring system is how the omnibox interprets what the user is searching for based on their typed input.
The post also explains that this improved capability will apply to Chrome across Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS.
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff)
From static to adaptive scoring models
Donnelly added that the omnibox’s scoring system did work pretty well already, but apparently, it was pretty inflexible and static, as it was ruled by “a set of hand-built and hand-tuned formulas.” These worked well for a huge range of inputs but weren’t easy to improve or adapt in new scenarios.
He said the engineering team responsible for the innovation had been working on a machine-learning-powered scoring model which is more sensitive to different metrics (like the last time you visited a website) for a while, a process which took some time, partly due to the enormous number of searches that take place every day. Now, it looks like the improved models are ready to be rolled out.
The team found that the less you visit a particular website, the less frequently the omnibox will return that site as a suggestion when processing your search queries. It also found something even more interesting - when a user spent a short amount of time navigating a specific web page, the new model also decreased that page’s relevance score.
The model’s training data revealed a pattern of users’ behavior where they’d open a page, realize that it’s not what they were looking for, and go back to the omnibox to look for something else. Donnelly said the team wanted to incorporate this finding into their model to lower the first result’s relevance score, and if not for the new machine-learning capabilities of the model, this feature could have been missed as a helpful addition.
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Gorodenkoff)
Onwards and upwards towards more personalized and responsive browsing
It sounds like Chromium’s engineering team took their mission pretty seriously, with Donnelly stating that his team “was driven by a sincere belief in the impact of getting this right for our users.” The results of their endeavors seem to have encouraged the team to continue working in this direction, and exploring more specialized search model versions for specific environments.
Donnelly wraps up by saying that as part of this ongoing process, the team will be observing how users’ interactions with Chrome’s omnibox change over time, so that it gets a better idea of how it can continue to improve the relevance scoring. The new model will also allow the team to collect more time-sensitive signals from user activity, and then retrain, re-evaluate, and deploy enhanced models in the future.
Overall, this sounds like a positive and exciting development, that could could deliver a more intuitive and more efficient browsing experience. Chrome’s omnibox will get better at knowing your habits and understanding what you want, and it’ll also get better at knowing what you don’t. It’s expected that this new functionality will arrive with Chrome update M124.
All of that said, you’ll probably have to live with handing over even more of your data to Google regarding your moment-to-moment online habits. If you can, and if you trust Google to handle it responsibly, then you can look forward to what sounds like a well-thought-out and innovative feature.
Quordle really is on a tough run at the moment. Today's puzzle is another really difficult one that may well have you scratching your head in bewilderment. If that's the case, then by all means take advantage of my hints to help you solve it.
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 #827) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.
* 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 #827) - 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 3.
Quordle today (game #827) - hint #3 - uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.
What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?
• S
• F
• R
• W
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #827) - the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today's Quordle, game #827, are…
STASH
FUSSY
REEDY
WALTZ
What are the factors that make Quordle difficult? Well, repeated letters would be one, uncommon letters another, uncommon words a third and words with too many possible solutions a fourth. And today's game has three of those four complications.
None could be considered uncommon words particularly, but the Z in WALTZ instantly makes that quadrant harder to solve, as do the repeated Ss in STASH and FUSSY, and the Es in REEDY. All three of those could also easily be other words: SMASH/SWASH/SLASH for the first, PUSSY for the second and WEEDY/NEEDY/SEEDY for the third.
It should come as no great shock, then, that I needed all nine guesses to solve today's game, although I did make at least one fairly poor mistake in solving WALTZ. Still, by that point I was so befuddled that I didn't entirely know what I was doing…
Is it just me or is Strands on a difficult run at the moment? Maybe the NYT thinks it needs to be tougher in order to draw in more players. And frustrating though it sometimes is, I definitely prefer it when it really gets me thinking.
If you're struggling with today's game then don't fret – I've got some hints for you below. Good luck!
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 #58) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Pour it on
NYT Strands today (game #58) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• COIN
• CHART
• POINT
• CHARD
• CHEEP
• DUSTY
NYT Strands today (game #58) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Added flavor
NYT Strands today (game #58) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: top, 3rd column
• End: 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 #58) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #58, are…
MAYO
TZATZIKI
KETCHUP
SRIRACHA
AIOLI
MUSTARD
SPANGRAM: CONDIMENT
My rating: Difficult
My score: Perfect
There are two reasons why I really struggled to solve today's Strands puzzle. Firstly, several of the words have rather unusual spellings; TZATZIKI, SRIRACHA and AIOLI are the worst offenders on that front. This immediately complicates a game of Strands, because your eye (and brain) is naturally drawn towards common pairings, such as S with H or M or T. S with R, as in SRIRACHA? No, that's firmly outside of my expectations.
Secondly, I don't really like condiments. I realize this makes me an outlier among the human population (and probably compared to my dog, too, because he's a labrador and will therefore eat anything), but it's how I've always been. I like TZATZIKI, but that's it. And don't get me started on MAYO, which is the worst thing about food, full stop.
Anyway, all of that combined to make this Strands another tricky one. It was only once I spotted MAYO that I realized what 'Pour it on' referred to, which theoretically made it easier, but KETCHUP aside I had to hunt and hunt for ages to find all of the answers.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday 29 April, game #57)
PINK
COMMON
SEAL
PRINCE
MEATLOAF
JEWEL
BRANDY
SPANGRAM: MUSICIANS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Another week, another set of Strands puzzles to solve courtesy of the New York Times' Games section. And be warned – today's is a tricky one. Read on for some (hopefully helpful) hints to see you on your way.
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 #57) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Name dropping
NYT Strands today (game #57) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• PINE
• BEAN
• JEAN
• MOWER
• TOIL
• BRAND
NYT Strands today (game #57) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Sound guys and gals
NYT Strands today (game #57) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: left, 6th row
• End: right, 3rd row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #57) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #57, are…
PINK
COMMON
SEAL
PRINCE
MEATLOAF
JEWEL
BRANDY
SPANGRAM: MUSICIANS
My rating: Difficult
My score: Perfect
This was another fairly tough Strands puzzle, mainly because there are so many options that it was hard to know what to look for. This is a theme among the more difficult editions of the game; look at a Strands puzzle such as the Headwear one and there are only so many possible answers, most of which you'll be able to think of. But musicians? That's so vast as to be almost unmanageable. I mean where do you start?
I started with PINK, which I found entirely by accident. Coupled with the clue of Name dropping I figured it might be celebrities or pop stars, rather than musicians exactly, but I couldn't find any other examples for ages.
The next answer I found was SEAL, again by accident, followed by COMMON. The latter was the one that made me realize it was probably a broader category of musicians that was needed, and I claimed the spangram not long after that. As if often the case that gave the board a little structure and I was able to eventually discover the other words after another long search. I'm not sure how much I enjoyed this game – I think they work better when more closely focused. But maybe that's just me…
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday 28 April, game #56)
RAZOR
WASHCLOTH
SOAP
SPONGE
SHAMPOO
CONDITIONER
SPANGRAM: SHOWER
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
I wouldn't describe today's NYT Strands puzzle as a particularly difficult one, but that doesn't make it easy either; very few of them could be called that. But don't worry! I have help for you below in the form of several hints to get you started. Check them out if you need them, scroll down to my commentary if not.
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 #56) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Coming clean
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• DIET
• WORSE
• POEM
• DITCH
• WIDEN
• WATCH
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Water fall
NYT Strands today (game #56) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: left, 3rd row
• End: 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 #56) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #56, are…
RAZOR
WASHCLOTH
SOAP
SPONGE
SHAMPOO
CONDITIONER
SPANGRAM: SHOWER
My rating: Moderate
My score: Perfect
This probably qualifies as a medium-difficulty Strands puzzle, because a couple of the words are quite long and therefore harder to find, and a couple of the shorter ones have uncommon letters of spelling. That can sometimes help, but not in this case – for me at least.
I got started easily enough, uncovering SHAMPOO and realizing that the theme clue – Coming clean – was going to mean finding personal cleaning items. I didn't quite have the shower element yet, though, especially once I found RAZOR; I'm sure plenty of people shave in the shower, but I'm not one of them, so I didn't yet make that connection. The trouble after that was simply that I couldn't find more words. I spotted WASH, but it didn't turn blue, and it took me ages to realize it continued into WASHCLOTH. SOAP was backwards, so to speak, so that took me a while too. And CONDITIONER foxed me right until I'd discovered everything else. Maybe it was just a bad day for me.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 27 April, game #55)
QUEEN
DOCTOR
ADMIRAL
REVEREND
PROFESSOR
SENATOR
SPANGRAM: TITLES
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Why not settle into the weekend with a nice, simple Quordle puzzle to solve. Or rather, four of them – because the challenge here is to complete a quartet of Wordle-style word games simultaneously.
Sounds tricky, right? And it is. But don't worry – I've compiled some Quordle hints to help you out, so scroll down for all of the info plus my commentary on today's 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 #824) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.
* 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 #824) - 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 2.
Quordle today (game #824) - hint #3 - uncommon letters
Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?
• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today's Quordle answers.
What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?
• Q
• B
• S
• L
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #824) - the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today's Quordle, game #824, are…
QUACK
BERET
SKULL
LATHE
It's been a while since we've had an uncommon letter in Quordle, but we got one today in the form of the Q in QUACK. Fortunately, it didn't cause me any problems because I already had -UAC- and as far as I could see there was no other word that could have fit there – but it may have caused more of an issue for you.
That aside, BERET was probably the hardest Quordle word to solve today. B is a very common starting letter, but those Es either side of an R are no so likely to appear, so format-wise it may not have occurred to you.
It's Friday, it's the final Strands puzzle of the working week (for some) and it's a rather easy one. That's my experience at least – but you may disagree. If so, don't worry – because you can find some handy hints for today's game below.
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 #55) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Call me?
NYT Strands today (game #55) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• QUOTE
• REVERE
• EVER
• CLAIM
• TRAIN
• LORD
NYT Strands today (game #55) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Address me properly
NYT Strands today (game #55) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: right, 4th row
• End: left, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #55) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #55, are…
QUEEN
DOCTOR
ADMIRAL
REVEREND
PROFESSOR
SENATOR
SPANGRAM: TITLES
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
The theme clue of 'Call me?' was a little opaque today, but that aside this was a relatively simple Strands puzzle with which to end the working week (for those of us who work Monday-Friday, that is). It's one of those games where finding the first answer may well have been enough to identify the overall theme, and where finding one answer was very easy.
That's because there's a Q in it – and Q words are generally easy to solve. For instance, you know that it's definitely going to be followed by a U, and that reduces the number of directions in which the word can develop. It was a cinch today to uncover QUEEN – and together with the clue that gave me the info I needed to look for (and find) the likes of DOCTOR and PROFESSOR. A couple took a little more effort (I'm looking at you, SENATOR and ADMIRAL), but as a whole this was not too bad.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday 26 April, game #54)
SHARP
NATURAL
CLEF
FLAT
SIGNATURE
REST
MEASURE
SPANGRAM: NOTATION
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
It's time to tackle another of the NYT's Strands puzzles. The aim here is to uncover a series of words hidden within a grid of letters and united by a single theme.
It's easy to pick up, often difficult to solve and a great addition to your daily routine if you already play the likes of Wordle and Connections. So read on for a few helpful hints and my commentary on today's Strands puzzle.
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 #54) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Staff members
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• SPEAR
• SIGN
• FLOAT
• FITTER
• CLEAN
• SHUT
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Sheet music
NYT Strands today (game #54) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: bottom, 3rd column
• End: top, 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 #54) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #54, are…
SHARP
NATURAL
CLEF
FLAT
SIGNATURE
REST
MEASURE
SPANGRAM: NOTATION
My rating: Very hard
My score: Perfect
You might look at my verdict above and think there's an inconsistency; why am I describing it as 'very hard' when I got a perfect score? Well, you wouldn't wonder why if you'd seen me struggling to solve this one over a period of about an hour!
In my defence, the game was biased against me from the start. I've never learned a musical instrument, other than a few weeks playing recorder at school aged about six, until it was politely suggested to me that I might want to try something different such as standing in a corner watching everyone else. I am not musical.
To add to that, today's theme hint, 'Staff members', meant nothing to me. In the UK, we use the term 'stave' rather than 'staff', so Staff members simply had me thinking about maybe terms for workers of some kind.
I was completely and utterly stumped even once I'd found SHARP purely by chance. In fact, it was only when I stumbled upon CLEF and FLAT as well that I realized what was needed here. The problem was that my knowledge was not strong enough to know what the other answers might be – so I ended up solving it all by brute force. Every single word. Not fun.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday 25 April, game #53)
CROWN
HELMET
BEANIE
BERET
FEDORA
BONNET
TURBAN
SPANGRAM: HEADWEAR
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Edge, Microsoft’s default web browser in Windows 11, is getting new text editing capabilities, including Copilot-assisted rewriting, improved clipboard functionality, and support for handwritten text in forms and web pages via a stylus.
Windows Copilot is the AI assistant that Microsoft has been busy integrating into Windows 11 and various other products, including Microsoft Edge. It was presented as eventually being able to help you with any task on your device, and while it still looks like there’s a way to go before Copilot lives up to that lofty ambition, it is getting there.
The new feature, AI Compose, will make rewrite suggestions for text selected by users in editable parts of a web page and can assist writers with possible phrasing improvements and pointers on sentence structure. It’ll also allow users to change the text suggestions’ tone, format, or length.
MSPowerUser compares the new functionality to the popular AI-powered writing assistance tool Grammarly. Apparently, this update will make Copilot more competitive with Google’s large language model and AI assistant project, Gemini, which is rumored to bring similar features to Google’s rival Chrome web browser.
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Jacob Lund)
Adding support in for digital pens and more
Edge will also get support for digital pen writing that will let users write in web pages’ input fields directly, turning their handwriting into text. Microsoft also describes in a blog post that users will be able to make use of Windows Ink support in Edge to do the following with digital pens:
Enter text by writing with a pen in or near an input field
Delete text by scribbling over words to delete them
Add or remove spaces by drawing vertical lines in the text
Add line breaks by drawing horizontal lines
Other text-related updates that are coming to Edge include a new EditContext API tool for web developers that’s intended to simplify the process of creating custom text editors, an enhanced copy-and-paste function that allows users to copy and paste formatted rich HTML content more reliably, and more control for web developers over Edge’s text prediction function.
I think this certainly has the potential to be a very helpful addition to Edge, because as Microsoft itself points out, a lot of the web’s success in general is due to its form submission and text editing capabilities. Microsoft has also stated that it would like feedback to improve the feature if needed, and this is a feature where it could take the initiative and actively encourage users to try the feature.
Thursday's Quordle brings four new puzzles to solve. Or does it? Because unlike Wordle, Quordle answers do sometimes repeat. (I'm not saying any of today's do, and in fact I have no idea whether any have appeared today, but it's worth knowing that it's a possibility.)
Anyway, the puzzles may be new (or possibly not), but the challenge is the same as always: find all four words in nine guesses or you are, officially, a loser. Sorry!
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 #822) - hint #1 - Vowels
How many different vowels are in Quordle today?
• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.
* 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 #822) - 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 1.
Quordle today (game #822) - 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.
What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?
• W
• D
• M
• L
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
Quordle today (game #822) - the answers
(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)
The answers to today's Quordle, game #822, are…
WHILE
DODGY
MACHO
LOATH
This was one of those days where the Daily Sequence was a lot tougher than the standard Quordle. A really obscure word in the form of ECLAT? Repeated letters in TAFFY and ANNOY? The Daily Sequence had them all, whereas the original Quordle game's only real complication was the repeated D in DODGY.
Admittedly, I did need an extra guess to solve MACHO (I played HAVOC first), but ultimately it was a reasonably approachable Quordle.
If you found yesterday's NYT Strands puzzle to be on the tough side (as I did) then you might enjoy today's a little more – I think it's a lot easier.
That doesn't mean it's downright easy, though. Strands is always a challenge, so read on for a few hints if you're struggling to find the answers.
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 #53) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… That's cap!
NYT Strands today (game #53) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• DEBUT
• ABBOT
• WHEEL
• BARN
• HERO
• BUTTER
NYT Strands today (game #53) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Keeps your brain warm
NYT Strands today (game #53) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: left, 4th row
• End: 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 #53) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #53, are…
CROWN
HELMET
BEANIE
BERET
FEDORA
BONNET
TURBAN
SPANGRAM: HEADWEAR
My rating: Easy
My score: Perfect
I'm not a hat person, but thankfully that didn't cause me any problems today. Unlike some recent Strands puzzles, which required a certain amount of specialist knowledge, 'hats' as a theme is much more approachable, yes? Maybe we gain that knowledge as children, or – who knows – maybe we're all born knowing the names of lots of hats. Maybe there's a pointer towards the meaning of life here, and hats are somehow woven into the fabric of reality. Maybe.
Whatever the answer, I found this one to be straightforward. Although technically speaking the theme isn't 'hats', it's 'headwear', and the answers include TURBAN and BONNET, for instance. I found those two a little tougher to identify than the rest, but most of them were pretty simple to uncover, particularly the spangram, which runs nicely from left to right in the middle of the board.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday 24 April, game #52)
MYSTERY
CONUNDRUM
QUANDARY
ENIGMA
RIDDLE
SPANGRAM: BRAINTEASERS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Hello! Today's Strands puzzle is a real head-scratcher, so you'll need your wits about you to solve it. Not feeling at your smartest today? Don't worry, I have some helpful hints for you below. (But you don't need them really. Go on, you can do it. You got this!)
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 #52) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… This is a puzzle
NYT Strands today (game #52) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• ROUND
• LASER
• DRIED
• RATES
• SQUARE
• MAGE
NYT Strands today (game #52) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Figure them out
NYT Strands today (game #52) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: bottom, 3rd column
• End: top, 3rd column
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #52) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #52, are…
MYSTERY
CONUNDRUM
QUANDARY
ENIGMA
RIDDLE
SPANGRAM: BRAINTEASERS
My rating: Very hard
My score: Perfect
I'm rating this one as very hard, despite the fact that I solved it without using any hints, because it was, frankly, a thoroughly frustrating experience.
Maybe my brain just wasn't in the right place for it, but it took me about half a day to solve it. I started, stopped, took a break, started again, stopped again, got my hair cut, started, stopped, got lunch… I just could not find a way in.
Once I 'got' it, I was away – it was finding the first answer that was the problem. And that was made harder today by virtue of there being only six answers to find, all of which were relatively long words and with mostly complicated spellings. Not that I couldn't spell them (I am a journalist after all), but that staring at the board didn't make them materialize in the way that simpler words often do.
Eventually I spotted MYSTERY, at which point I realized I needed words that mean a puzzle. And then CONUNDRUM, ENIGMA and QUANDARY followed. The spangram still foxed me for ages, though – I could see BRAINTEASER and must have played it a dozen times because I was so convinced it was the answer, before finally realizing it needed an ERS on the end. D'oh!
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 23 April, game #51)
PECAN
BUTTER
FLOUR
SALT
SYRUP
SUGAR
VANILLA
SPANGRAM: INGREDIENTS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Here we are then with another edition of the NYT's new(ish) Strands puzzle. It's not quite as popular as Wordle or Connections just yet, but it's great fun and could easily reach the same levels in time.
Below, you'll find a selection of hints to help you solve what can be a difficult game, so read on for all of the info.
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 #51) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… As easy as pie
NYT Strands today (game #51) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• PEST
• CREST
• DELUGE
• CRANE
• RUBY
• GRADE
NYT Strands today (game #51) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Bake off
NYT Strands today (game #51) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: bottom, 3rd column
• End: top, 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 #51) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #51, are…
PECAN
BUTTER
FLOUR
SALT
SYRUP
SUGAR
VANILLA
SPANGRAM: INGREDIENTS
My rating: Hard
My score: Perfect
Yet again I struggled with a Strands puzzle through lack of knowledge of the theme. I have eaten pecan pie, but I'm not hugely into baking (I make a mean curry, though) and given that I hail from the UK rather than the US, I don't have that cultural awareness of what is a staple of American cuisine.
For that reason, I found it difficult to spot all of the answers even once it was obvious what kind of words I needed. Some – for instance FLOUR and SUGAR – were fairly obvious, but I had no idea that SYRUP or VANILLA were part of the deal. And where are EGGS – surely they're needed? As I said, I'm no expert…
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Monday 22 April, game #50)
KNIGHT
MAGE
BARD
ROGUE
SORCERER
ASSASSIN
HUNTER
SPANGRAM: FANTASY
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
It's time for your Monday instalment of NYT Strands, the word game that challenges you to solve a kind of leveled-up wordsearch.
Today's puzzle is not too bad, in my experience, but if you need hints to help you then scroll down and you'll find a selection.
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 #50) - hint #1 - today's theme
What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?
• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Character class
NYT Strands today (game #50) - hint #2 - clue words
What are some good clue words today?
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
• SASH
• SORE
• BORN
• NASTY
• TASK
• NIGHT
NYT Strands today (game #50) - hint #3 - spangram
What is a hint for today's spangram?
• Dungeons and dragons
NYT Strands today (game #50) - hint #4 - spangram position
Where does today's spangram start and end?
• Start: left, 3rd row
• End: right, 5th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #50) - the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today's Strands, game #50, are…
KNIGHT
MAGE
BARD
ROGUE
SORCERER
ASSASSIN
HUNTER
SPANGRAM: FANTASY
My rating: Moderate
My score: Perfect
That's more like it. After I really struggled to solve yesterday's Strands and ended up needing two hints, I found this to be a lot more straightforward. That said, you may well not have done – because how easy it was for you will have depended on your knowledge of the fantasy genre. Mine is pretty strong, so once I found KNIGHT and then MAGE, both of which relatively obvious, I was able to knock them off one by one with no mishaps.
Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday 21 April, game #49)
DRIVE
SPEAK
CRAWL
MARRY
VOTE
GRADUATE
RETIRE
SPANGRAM: MILESTONES
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.
Today's Wordle is the most difficult we've had so far in 2024, but that doesn't come close to describing how tough it is. 'Wordle 1,037 X' is trending high on Twitter, which is always a sign of a hard puzzle, and some 13% of players have failed it so far.
Solving it in six guesses or fewer and preserving your Wordle streak will be a challenge, that's for sure. But there are ways to play it to avoid heartache (or the Wordle equivalent; this is only a game, after all). These strategies might be too late to help you now, but they could save you next time a game like this crops up. And it will.
To explain what they are, I'll need to include SPOILERS FOR TODAY'S WORDLE, GAME #1,037, ON SUNDAY, 21 APRIL 2024. So please don't read on if you haven't already completed it. Just bear in mind that you might want some hints for Wordle today before doing so.
How hard?
OK, so let's talk about today's Wordle word and exactly how hard it was.
The answer to game #1,037, assuming you've played by now **FINAL SPOILER ALERT**, is JOLLY – and it really is causing a lot of problems.
The way I assess the difficulty of each Wordle is to consult WordleBot, the New York Times' AI-powered helper tool. Each day, WordleBot analyzes the games of everyone who plays and reports an average score for it. And today, it says people are solving it in an average of 5.4 guesses. That's based on a random sample of 1,778,346 Wordlers who have so far played it – so it's a pretty sizeable survey.
I've recorded the WordleBot average scores every day since the tool launched in April 2022, meaning I now have a list of 749 games ranked by difficulty. By that measure, JOLLY is the hardest Wordle so far in 2024, comfortably beating the previous holder of that title, PIPER, which was a 5.2 game in February.
But that only tells half of the tale, because JOLLY is in fact the toughest Wordle since June 2023, and is actually the equal fourth worst ever. Only PARER (average score 6.3), MUMMY (5.8) and JAZZY (5.5) have been harder, while FOYER, RIPER and JOKER all had the same 5.4 average.
Unsurprisingly, many players are struggling. Some 233,791 Wordlers have failed to solve it as of the time of writing, which is 13% of the total. That's a super-high failure rate.
Turn to Twitter and you can see the reaction, with scores of players posting their games and bemoaning their luck:
A quick glance is enough to see one of the main causes of this glut of failures – namely the too-many-answers problem. But it's far from the only one.
Too many answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
Lots of the hardest Wordles ever share a common theme, namely too-many-answers. In other words, the solution is one that could have been another word if you just changed one (or sometimes two) letters.
There are several of these traps, for instance -IGHT, -OUND and -ATCH. The first of those has nine possible solutions: WIGHT, EIGHT, RIGHT, TIGHT, LIGHT, FIGHT, SIGHT, MIGHT and NIGHT. The second has eight – WOUND, ROUND, POUND, HOUND, FOUND, SOUND, MOUND and BOUND – while the third has seven (WATCH, PATCH, LATCH, HATCH, MATCH, BATCH and CATCH).
The -OLLY trap, meanwhile, is on a par with -ATCH, because it has seven definite answers: LOLLY, JOLLY, HOLLY, GOLLY, FOLLY, MOLLY and DOLLY. It's up there with the worst possible formats.
These kind of games are a nightmare if you play on hard mode, where you can easily get stuck with four green letters and be forced to randomly guess letters in the search of the right one. So my first tip is simply not to play on hard mode! Or, if you do, you need to bear in mind that this kind of thing might happen, and guard against it from the very start,
Worse still here, the eventual answer was JOLLY, which begins with the least common letter in the game. This is something I prove in my analysis of every Wordle answer; J only appears in 27 of Wordle's 2,309 original solutions, and it's therefore not a letter most people use very often.
Add to that the fact that JOLLY also includes a repeated letter – which itself is a less common occurrence than getting five individual letters – and you have a game that's set up to make life difficult for you.
How to play one of these games and win
The key to beating a game like JOLLY – unless you play on hard mode – is to narrow down your options as early as possible.
What this means is not chasing a high score, because that way lies disaster. Let's say you established this was an -OLLY word as early as the third guess, which isn't unreasonable depending on what your start word was. In that scenario, it can be tempting to guess common words such as FOLLY, say, or HOLLY, in the search of that average-beating 4/6 score.
DO NO DO THIS.
Instead, the second you realize that there are more answers left than guesses, the only way to consistently beat Wordle is to find a narrowing-down word that eliminates as many options as possible. In my example above, it was MIGHT – because that ruled out MOLLY, GOLLY and HOLLY in a single guess, leaving me with only JOLLY left to play next time.
This goes against many people's instincts, because it involves leaving out green letters, which just feels wrong. But it's what WordleBot does, and the 'bot is far smarter than you or I.
In some cases, you might even need to play two such words, and in fact I kind of did that; LOWLY, which I played the guess before MIGHT, was chosen partly to rule out LOLLY as an option. The important thing is to establish what all of the options are, draw up a list of all those possible letters (in this case F, H, G, L, M, D and J), then think of words that contain as many of them as possible.
You could consider this an overly cautious and maybe cowardly way to play Wordle, but if you value your streak then it's the only approach that makes sense.
