NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, May 26 (game #84)

Marc McLaren
·2 min read
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background.
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background.

And so the weekend comes to an end with another Strands game from the New York Times. It's potentially a tricky beast, as many of them are, so read on if you need some hints for it.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Beyond Nashville

NYT Strands today (game #84) - hint #2 - clue words

What are some good clue words today?

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

• BRAN

• SAIL

• SULK

• BOOK

• BROOK

• STILL

NYT Strands today (game #84) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Walk the line

NYT Strands today (game #84) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First: top, 3rd column

• Last: bottom, 5th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #84) - the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 84 on a blue background
NYT Strands answers for game 84 on a blue background

The answers to today's Strands, game #84, are…

  • HILL

  • BROOKS

  • CASH

  • PAISLEY

  • SWIFT

  • URBAN

  • TWAIN

  • SPANGRAM: COUNTRYSTARS

  • My rating: Moderate

  • My score: Perfect

This is one of those Strands games where the theme clue potentially makes it very easy – but where that may not help if you don't know a lot about the subject. The subject in question is COUNTRYSTARS, as per the spangram, though whether Taylor SWIFT can really be described as a country star these days is debatable.

Fortunately for me, I'm a huge Johnny CASH fan, and though none of the other musicians listed here and on my personal playlist, I know enough about the genre that I didn't struggle to find any of them. Maybe I would have done if the spangram hadn't been so easy to locate, but with that in place much of the hard work was done.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 25 May, game #83)

  • TIME

  • STAKE

  • MOOSE

  • LEAK

  • CHILLY

  • MEET

  • PAIR

  • SERIAL

  • SPANGRAM: HOMOPHONES

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and 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.