NEW Strands Today — Tips, Answers and Spangram for Tuesday, November 12 (Game #254)

On November 13, 2024By Littum

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game, following the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult though, so read on for my Strands tips.

Want more word-based fun? So check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for tips and answers to these games.

SPOILER ALERT: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert

Marc McLaren

NEW Strands today (game #254) – tip #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NEW Strands theme is… Explain it

NEW Strands Today (Game #254) – Hint #2 – Clue Words

Play one of these words to unlock the in-game hint system.

WORK
RED
BAND
STORY
HAND
DIAGRAM

NEW Strands today (game #254) – tip #3 – spangram

What’s a tip for today’s spangram?

• It is phonetic

NEW Strands today (game #254) – tip #4 – spangram position

What two sides of the board do today’s spangram touch?

First: left, 5th row

Last: right, 6th row

Okay, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NEW Strands today (game #254) – the answers

NEW Strands answer for game 254 on a blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #254, are…

ECHO
VICTOR
PARTICIPATE
FOXTROT
GOLF
TANGO
BRAVO
SPAN FRAME: THE NATO ALPHABET

My rating: Moderate
My score: 1 tip

I’ve used the NATO ALPHABET so many times in the last month or so that these code words should be burned into my brain. I had some work done on my car and apparently spent hours talking to people on the phone (garage, insurance, rental car company, etc.) to give them my license plate number, address, zip code, etc. The phonetic alphabet was the obvious way I could guarantee they got my information down properly, but I always struggled to remember some of the details. What was K again? KING? KITTEN? Was P PEPPER or PETER or PIGGY or PUPIL? Neither, of course – K is KILO and P is PAPA, but hey, I was never in the military…

Fortunately, all the answers in today’s Strands were ones I knew, but I needed a hint to get started. I also struggled with the spanframe – finding the ALPHABET early on but didn’t realize it needed the NATO bit at first until I had completed most of the other answers. Anyway, SIERRA ECHO ECHO YANKEE OSCAR UNIFORM TANGO OSCAR MIKE OSCAR ROMEO ROMEO OSCAR WHISKEY!

How did you do today? Email me and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strand’s Answer (Monday, November 11, Game #253)

NURSE
DOCTOR
SURGEON
PHARMACIST
DENTIST
SPANGRAM: MEDICAL CAREER

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is NYT’s new word game after Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta, so it’s a full member of NYT’s game stable and playable NYT Games website on desktop or mobile.

I have a full guide on how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips to solve it, so check it out if you struggle to beat it every day.