NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, July 19 (game #503)

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 Friday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, July 18 (game #502).

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 #503) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Hot enough for ya?

NYT Strands today (game #503) – hint #2 – clue words

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

SMUG
COMMA
SINGER
CORE
RELATE
TRAIN

NYT Strands today (game #503) – hint #3 – spangram letters

How many letters are in today’s spangram?

• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #503) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

First side: top, 6th column

Last side: bottom, 1st column

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

NYT Strands today (game #503) – the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #503, are…

STICKY
BALMY
MUGGY
SCORCHING
SWELTERING
SPANGRAM: SUMMER WEATHER

My rating: Hard
My score: 1 hint

The first word I got was STICKY, so I did momentarily think that today’s search was something to do with cooking spicy food.

After hitting a wall and seeing dozens of non-game words – but zero game words – I took a hint and BALMY set me on my way.

It’s odd how if we live in a cooler climate we spend ages wishing for warmer weather, but then when it arrives – as today’s word search demonstrates – we realize it’s insufferable.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Friday, July 18, game #502)

ESCAPE
LEVITATE
MULTIPLY
DISAPPEAR
TRANSFORM
SPANGRAM: ITS MAGIC

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.