Today’s NYT Strands answers, clues, and hints on May 9 (#797)

Strands is one of the newer daily word puzzles from the New York Times; it follows the success of other popular word games like Wordle and Connections. It’s often more of a brain teaser than those two, and generally takes longer, so looking for clues comes in handy if you’re hoping to solve today’s Strands without wasting too much time.

The goal is to find a selection of hidden words related to a broader theme within a 48-letter grid (6×8). Unlike a traditional wordsearch puzzle, you can string together adjacent letters in any direction, and the goal is to complete the entire board. In addition to the theme words, there’s also the “spangram”: a word that describes today’s theme and touches two opposite sides of the grid (it can also be multiple words). You’ll know it’s the spangram as it will highlight it in yellow once found.

What is today’s NYT Strands theme? (May 9, puzzle #797)

The theme for today’s Strands is “Garden varieties”. NYT rates the difficulty of today’s puzzle (#797) as “moderate”.

Non-theme hint words for today

Strands has another interesting mechanic. If you make a word that isn’t part of the theme words, you work towards earning a hint. Three non-theme words will earn you a hint that reveals the letters of a theme word. You can earn clues for any non-theme word that you happen to find (it has to be at least four letters long). Here are some examples:

• GATE
• PAIN
• TOES
• GAPS
• TRICK
• DOES

How many letters are in today’s spangram? And is it one word?

There are 12 letters in the spangram today, and it is two words.

Which sides of the board does today’s spangram touch?

The spangram today touches the first column, bottom row, and the last column, bottom row. It starts with S and ends with E.

What are all the answers in today’s Strands?

If you’ve taken advantage of all the hints and still haven’t solved the puzzle, you can find the full answers to today’s Strands below. There are five regular theme words, followed by the spangram in bold to make a total of six.

• ARTICHOKE
• ASPARAGUS
• LETTUCE
• ONION
• RADISH
• SPRINGVEGGIE

Is Strands more difficult than Wordle?

Strands and Wordle are similar in the sense that they’re both word games, but there’s much more to solve in Strands, so we’d say it leans towards being the more difficult of the two. If word searches are more your thing, then you might find Strands to be more enjoyable than Wordle, though that doesn’t guarantee it’s easier. You need to find words that cover the entire board, which means solving around seven or eight words in the correct pattern, including the spangram. Wordle is just one word every day.

The built-in hints system is one nice thing about Strands – and it’s something Wordle doesn’t offer. If you can’t immediately find any words related to the theme and don’t know where to start, you can string together a word and build towards a hint. Plus, unlike Wordle, there’s an unlimited amount of guesses in Strands – so you can’t fail in that regard.