NYT Strands Today: Hints, Spangram And Answers For Tuesday, September 9 (No Gray Area)

Hey, folks! Today’s NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers for Tuesday, September 9 are coming right up.

How To Play Strands

The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s available on the NYT website and in the NYT Games app alongside the likes of Wordle and Connections (which we also cover in daily guides at Forbes Gaming).

There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.

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You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links at least two sides of the board, but it may not start or end there. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.

Every letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and it’s possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you’re playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.

If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you’ll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words.

Be warned: You’ll need to be on your toes. Sometimes you’ll need to fill the missing word(s) in a phrase. On other days, the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day, and the puzzle creators will try to surprise you sometimes.

What Is Today’s Strands Hint?

Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today’s Strands puzzle, I’ll reveal what the first two letters for the spangram and the other words are.

The official theme hint for today’s Strands puzzle is...

No gray area

Need some extra help? Here’s another hint...

Like crossword squares or old movies

There are seven theme words to find today, including the spangram.

What Are Today’s NYT Strands Opening Letters?

Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Strands opening letters.

Here are the first two letters of every theme word in today’s puzzle. They’re ordered from left to right, then top to bottom by any letter of the word appearing for the first time:

• BL
• DI
• DO
• PI
• PE
• NE
• OR

What Is Today’s NYT Strands Spangram?

Before I reveal the other the full word list, I’ll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid.

This is your final spoiler warning!

Scroll slowly, because I’ll tell you what all the theme words are immediately after showing you where the spangram is.

Today’s Strands spangram is...

BLACK AND WHITE

Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…

What Are Today’s NYT Strands Answers?

Today’s Strands theme words are...

• BLACK AND WHITE
• DICE
• DOMINO
• PIANO
• PENGUIN
• NEWSPAPER
• ORCA

Here’s what the completed grid looks like...

My first thought was that the theme might be rainbow colors, bur I wasn’t seeing anything along those lines. A hint gave me DICE, so I got that and DOMINO from the letters that were blocked away. The spangram was next, and everything else was straightforward after that.

I used one hint and the spangram was the third theme word I found.

See you tomorrow for more Strands fun!

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