The New York Times Strands puzzle can be a bit challenging sometimes, leaving you struggling and scratching your head. If this is the case with today’s game, then there’s no shame in looking for some help. Today, we will help you out with the Strands hints for puzzle #646 on December 9, 2025, along with the Spangram answer.
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is another popular word game in the growing library of The New York Times daily puzzles, which includes Wordle and Connections. Here, the aim is to find words by connecting them with a “strand” on an 8 x 6 grid of letters. Each day, you will get a new theme, and you need to discover words related to it.
But be on the lookout for NYT Strands hint, a special word called “Spangram” which stretches across the entire grid vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. If you recognize today’s “nyt strands hint,” it’s easy to solve the rest of the Strands puzzles. If you want more tips and tricks like this to master the game, you can learn how to play Strands before you begin your journey.
NYT Strands Theme Today
Today’s theme is:
Techniques used in a popular game
NYT Strands Hints Today
While the hint for today’s theme should be enough to connect the dots and figure out the answer, we have included additional hints for your ease here:
If the hints above still didn’t help you discover the words for today’s Strands game, here are the first two letters of each word to help you out.
- RE
- BL
- DU
- JU
- SC
- GU
- DR
- BA
NYT Strands Spangram Hint: Is It Vertical or Horizontal?
The Spangram hint for today’s Strands, December 9, 2025, is Circular and starts from the left, going all the way around. Here’s another hint for the Spangram: it starts with the letters “BA”.
Today’s Strands Spangram
Couldn’t figure out the puzzle answer even after looking at today’s strands hint shared above? No problem, we have the answers for you. The Spangram answer for December 9, 2025, Strands is:
You can click on the reveal letter by letter before uncovering the full solution.
Spoiler Warning!
Scroll past this AT YOUR OWN RISK. The theme word answers for today’s Strands below.
NYT Strands Answer Today
Still looking for the theme words to complete today’s NYT Strands puzzle? Well, I won’t keep you waiting anymore. Here are the answers:
- REBOUND
- BLOCK
- DUNK
- JUMP
- SCREEN
- GUARD
- DRIBBLE
Difficulty Level for Strands Today
As a NYT Strands veteran player and based on my experience with the game, I would rank today’s game 4 out of 5. On my scale, 1 is the easiest and 5 is the hardest, in terms of difficulty.
Today’s Strands puzzle was kind of hard to guess. Especially the Spangram that I didn’t expect to be circular, which is why I had to take a lot of hints to solve this one. I also fumbled on the spelling of “DRIBBLE”, which is why it took me longer than usual to solve today’s game but I finally managed to do it.
What is NYT Strands Spangram and How Does It Work?
Unlike your typical word-finding puzzle, Strands feature a unique twist called “Spangram”. This is a special word that runs along the entire length of the grid, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. But that does not mean the first letter of Spangram starts at the edge of the grid.
This is considered a key hint to solving the Strands puzzle, and that’s for a good reason. Figuring out the Spangram early not only offers another clue for today’s theme. It also splits up the grid, making some of the words in Strands easier to figure out.
Tips and Tricks for Mastering NYT Strands Puzzles
If you want to master every day’s Strands puzzle, then here are some quick tips to become a pro at solving the game:
- Look up ‘Today’s Strand Hint’: One thing I always do before starting a puzzle is to look up the theme on Google. This helps me get a clear idea of the words I need to search for in the game. Sometimes, it can even help me find the words I am looking for.
- Pay close attention to corners: Another good strategy I practice is to check the corners, as it gets easy to find words there, and gives you a starting point.
- Try to get Strands Hints: The puzzle can be quite tricky on some days, so rather than giving up, I suggest you try to connect random words to get hints. Don’t be ashamed to get a clue, as even one could be the key to solving the entire puzzle.
- Go for the Spangram first: The Strand Spangram takes up the entire height or width of the puzzle grid, so solving it gives you another clue to find the rest of the words, and also divides the grid, which makes it easy to solve the puzzle.
That is it for today! We will meet again for another NYT Strands game tomorrow. In the meantime, you could check out some of the other New York Times puzzles.
The theme for today’s Strands game is – On the court
The Spangram answer for today’s Strands is BASKETBALL.
The answer to yesterday’s NYT Strands puzzle was PARTSOFSPEECH.
Similar to Connections and Wordle, NYT Strands now has a dedicated “archive” page. So, you can subscribe to NYT Games and play old puzzles by selecting the desired date on the website.
