NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, July 17 (game #866)

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 Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, July 16 (game #865).

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Categorically speaking

NYT Strands today (game #866) - hint #2 - clue words

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

PRIVATE

MINT

PLUGS

GRATE

TROPE

RENT

NYT Strands today (game #866) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 14 letters

NYT Strands today (game #866) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First side: left, 4th row

• Last side: right, 4th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #866) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #866, are…

ENTERTAINMENT

NATURE

SPORTS

GEOGRAPHY

SPANGRAM: TRIVIALPURSUIT

My rating: Easy

My score: Perfect

Initially I thought we would be looking for synonyms of the word category, but instead we were on the hunt for the four of the six segments — or cheeses — that complete a game piece in TRIVIALPURSUIT.

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Missing from the list are history and science.

Spotting ENTERTAINMENT — a tricky word to hide — kicked things off for me, with the letter V helping me connect the spangram. All in all a good deal shorter than an actual game of TRIVIALPURSUIT.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, July 16, game #865)

TACK

ZIGZAG

TURN

VEER

DEVIATE

PIVOT

SWERVE

SPANGRAM: CHANGECOURSE

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.