NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, January 17 (game #685)

Date:
Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Description:
Looking for NYT Strands answers and hints? Here's all you need to know to solve today's game, including the spangram.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Looking for a different day? 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 Friday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, January 16 (game #684) .

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 #685) -
hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is That's putting it mildly! NYT Strands today (game #685) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system. TARN PONY RATE PHASE SACKED CAKE NYT Strands today (game #685) - hint #3 - spangram letters How many letters are in today's spangram?

Spangram has 11 letters NYT Strands today (game #685) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: bottom, 1st 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 #685) - the answers (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #685, are DRAT CURSES FIDDLESTICKS TARNATION PHOOEY SPANGRAM: FOILEDAGAIN My rating: Easy My score: Perfect

I love a polite swearword. If you hear someone curse fudge or sugar it is firstly very funny, but secondly also pointless because everyone knows what you are really trying to say.

Perhaps a better option is to come up with something a bit more creative,
like calling someone the son of an aardvark or yelling peanuts when you accidentally hurt yourself. There is a brilliant story a UK journalist called Jon Ronson wrote about being asked by his son what the worst swearword in the worldwas, and he randomly replied limone it worked, for a while, until one day he returned home from school and called his father a very, very rude word for lying to him.

Anyway, I digress. A great, fun search in which I thankfully was not FOILEDAGAIN. Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, January 16, game #684) JOKER ROBIN CAPE MANOR JUSTICE PENGUIN VENGEANCE SPANGRAM: BATMAN 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 h ow to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/websites-apps/nyt-strands-today-answers-hi nts-17-january-2026


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