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Johnny Dee

NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, September 15 (game #561)

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background.
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 Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, September 14 (game #560).

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 #561) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is… For a fortune

NYT Strands today (game #561) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

  • FIVE
  • LIVED
  • DROP 
  • PRESS
  • LOVED
  • CRAG

NYT Strands today (game #561) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

Spangram has 10 letters

NYT Strands today (game #561) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 4th column

Last side: bottom, 3rd column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #561) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #561, are…

  • FOOL
  • MOON
  • DEVIL
  • EMPRESS
  • MAGICIAN
  • LOVERS
  • STAR
  • SPANGRAM: TAROTCARDS
  • My rating: Hard
  • My score: 2 mistakes

The theme really threw me today. Initially I thought we were looking for something to do with winning or gambling, but after drawing a blank I used my non-game words to get a hint.

FOOL made me think of the phrase “A fool and his money are easily parted”, so I still thought that we were searching for words connected to money. A second hint gave me MOON, which confused me further.

Fortunately, I spied the spangram and managed to slowly make my way around the board, despite the fact that the only TAROTCARDS I knew (the Hanged Man and Death) didn’t make the cut.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, September 14, game #560)

  • SLOW
  • LEISURELY
  • RELAXED
  • STEADY
  • SLUGGISH
  • POKEY
  • SPANGRAM: NOTSOFAST

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 how 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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