NYT Strands Clues and Solutions for August 9, 2025

If you’re here, you’re looking for help with Strands, the New York Times‘ intricate word-search game.

Strands invites players to reimagine the classic word search. Words can be constructed from adjacent letters — moving up, down, left, right, or at angles, and they may switch directions, forming distinctive shapes and patterns. Each letter within the grid contributes to an answer. There is always a theme linking all answers, along with the “spangram,” a unique word or phrase that embodies the day’s theme, stretching across the grid either horizontally or vertically.

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By providing a vague hint and leaving out the word list, Strands establishes a tougher game that requires a bit more time to finish than other challenges like Wordle and Connections.

If you’re having trouble or don’t have 10 or more minutes to tackle today’s puzzle, we have all the NYT Strands hints needed to move at your own speed.

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NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Culinary tools

The words pertain to food.

Today’s NYT Strands theme clearly described

These terms refer to typical cooking devices.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it up or down?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

NYT Strands spangram answer for today

Today’s spangram is Kitchen Tool.