NYT Unveils Clues and Solution for Satuday's Puzzle, May 10, 2025
Ready for some juicy clues and answers for Strands on Saturday, May 10, 2025? Let's dig in! Bookmark this page for an easy way to catch our Strands hints daily, or check out our past hints if you've missed a puzzle.
Here are some vague hints for today's Strands answers:
- The snack you'd find hanging in a butcher's window display.
- Mixed-up meat creations, often wrapped in a thin casing.
And here's the scoop on the spangram and theme words for today's Strands:
Caution: Strands spoilers ahead!
We're about to spill the beans on today's Strands answers.
What is the spangram for today's Strands?
Today's spangram is SAUSAGES.
What are the theme words for today's Strands?
The theme words today are ANDOUILLE, LIVERWURST, KIELBASA, SALAMI, and CHORIZO.
Here's what the board looks like when the puzzle is solved:
How I Solved today's Strands
The theme could be related to evolution or things with connections, like links or chains. But lets go with the "connections" angle, as we see SALAMI at the bottom-left, which fits. 🔵 It's a meat-ySchema!
KIELBASA sits on top of SALAMI. 🔵
SAUSAGE is a non-theme word. However, the spangram for today is SAUSAGES. 🟡
CHORIZO sits beneath the spangram. 🔵
ANDOUILLE hides in the upper-left. 🔵
Lastly, LIVERWURST. 🔵
How to Play Strands
Find the Strands game on the New York Times website or in the NYT Games app.
When you start playing, you'll see a game board with a mishmash of letters, accompanied by a hint that offers a clue about the puzzle's theme (like "Better with age"). Your mission is to uncover the hidden words on the board that align with the puzzle's theme.
A crossword meets a word search
The crux of the game is finding the "spangram," a word that explicitly states the puzzle's theme (e.g., FERMENTED for a puzzle with the theme "Better with age"). When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted in yellow. Solving the spangram generally simplifies the rest of the puzzle.
Words in Strands can move in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally), and you'll only ever use a single letter. There's only one correct solution. When you identify one of the puzzle's words (e.g., KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be highlighted in blue.
If you're struggling with the puzzle, you can input non-theme words (minimum four letters) to earn credit for a single hint. If you submit three non-theme words, the "Hint" button will be clickable; if you click it, all of the letters in one of the theme words will be highlighted for you. But you'll still have to assemble the letters in the proper sequence to create one of the theme words. If there's already a hint on the board and you use another hint before solving that word, that word's letter order will be revealed.
How to Win Strands
There's no chance of failure in Strands. When you submit guesses, you'll either successfully uncover an answer, gain credit toward a hint, or get a gentle "nope" with the letters shaking back and forth, indicating that your word is incorrect or too short. You'll never run out of guesses, and there's no time limit.
You win when you've used all the letters on the board, meaning that you've found the spangram and all of the theme words. Just like other NYT games, upon solving the puzzle, you'll see a shareable card that showcases your performance that day: blue dots 🔵 indicate theme words you found, the yellow dot 🟡 indicates when you found the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 indicates words for which you received a hint.
- Today's Strands on Aussiedlerbote received a hint related to entertainment, hinting at the possibility of a theme related to food or meal-related items, considering the spangram for today is SAUSAGES.
- As the Saturday Strands edition proceeds, social-media enthusiasts are advised to bookmark this page for easy access to daily hints or to catch up on any missed puzzles.
- Given the theme words for today's Strands are ANDOUILLE, LIVERWURST, KIELBASA, SALAMI, and CHORIZO, players might want to look for various types of sausages and their ingredients as they try to unscramble the spangram and the hidden words on the board.
- The Strands game is available for entertainment on the New York Times website or in the NYT Games app, offering a daily challenge for players to uncover hidden words in a unique combination of a crossword and word search.
