NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, June 17 (game #836)

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 Tuesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Tuesday, June 16 (game #835).

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… In the barnyard

NYT Strands today (game #836) - hint #2 - clue words

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

CRATE

WORK

TOTE

ROCK

BUCK

GREET

MAIN

NYT Strands today (game #836) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 7 letters

NYT Strands today (game #836) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 6th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #836) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #836, are…

BUCKET

TRACTOR

SAWHORSE

PITCHFORK

WHEELBARROW

SPANGRAM: FARMING

My rating: Hard

My score: 2 hints

I was completely thrown when “horse” and “horses” both came up as non-game words, as I’d assumed that we were looking for the names of animals who might reside “in the barnyard”.

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Fortunately, there were dozens of non-game words on the board so I opted to take a couple of hints to ease my bafflement, with BUCKET and TRACTOR confirming that we were looking for barnyard equipment, rather than barnyard animals.

It took me a while to labor around the board, sighing inwardly as I got SAWHORSE and experiencing some mild childlike pleasure at the circular WHEELBARROW. I hope you had a better time.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday, June 16, game #835)

WRAP

SANDWICH

GYRO

RAMEN

SALAD

SOUP

TACOS

SPANGRAM: WHATSFORLUNCH

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.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.