Listed here are the solutions for the NYT Strands puzzle #685 at the moment, launched on January seventeenth, 2026, and a few hints that can assist you resolve them.
The New York Occasions are identified for the wide selection of video games they publish for readers to finish on the day by day. That they had additionally revealed the viral phrase recreation, Wordle, in 2022, so as to add to their assortment.
A brand new recreation has been launched by the paper, known as Strands, which is at the moment in beta. On this recreation, there’s a theme of phrases on a board and it’s essential discover the theme associated phrases.
Upon getting discovered a theme associated phrase, it is going to keep crammed in blue and to create these phrases, you have to to pull or kind the letters. All the letters on the board are used to make up phrases for the theme and the letters don’t overlap into different phrases.
There’s additionally a “spangram” which is a phrase on the board that describes the theme of the puzzle for the day. It would contact two reverse sides of the board and could also be two phrases.
Upon getting discovered the spangram phrase, it is going to keep highlighted in yellow.
An instance of a spangram is FRUIT, and the opposite themed phrases could be PEAR, BANANA and APPLE.
In case you are struggling to seek out any phrases referring to the theme, you may try to discover different phrases on the board, which won’t keep highlighted, however will enable you to to get hints. You’ll need to seek out three non-theme phrases to get a touch.
Strands 685 Hints Today (January seventeenth, 2026)
Today’s theme or trace for the puzzle is, “THAT’S PUTTING IT MILDLY!” and there are six theme phrases to be discovered.
Extra hints that can assist you resolve the Strands puzzle launched at the moment is:
- Two phrases within the Spangram at the moment.
- There are six and 5 letters within the Spangram phrase at the moment.
Strands 685 Spangram Reply Today (January seventeenth, 2026)
With each puzzle, there’s a spangram, which helps describe the theme. The spangram for the puzzle launched on January seventeenth is:
FOILED AGAIN
The phrase begins on the backside and ends on the prime of the grid.
The precise location of the Spangram phrase may be seen under:
Strands 685 Answer Today (1/17/2026)
Listed here are all the different themed phrases for the Stands 685 puzzle:
- TARNATION
- PHOOEY
- CURSES
- FIDDLESTICKS
- DRAT
Tell us within the feedback under which phrases you bought caught on.