Today’s NYT Strands is built around a big, braggy idea: “Big talk.” The board moves at a friendly pace—unless you get stuck staring at a few stubborn clusters. If you’re comfortable hunting hidden words, you’ll probably feel the theme click quickly once you’ve found a couple of long entries.
If you’d rather solve than stall, use the hints below to pull the right words out of the grid. And if you want a full safety net, the complete answer set is in the next section.
Hints
Theme: “Big talk” points you toward ultra-large, showy synonyms—the sort of words you’d drop when you want to sound dramatically impressive.
How to approach the grid: Start by scanning for longer strings (four letters or more). Once you’ve found a few words, Strands begins revealing parts of the theme, which makes the remaining searches faster.
If you’re looking for traction right away, here are some word shapes that can unlock progress. Any of these should help you start picking up the thread: SUMP, VAIL, TAIL, SOOT, THAN, SUIT, SUITS, STOLE, MOTH.
Once you begin spotting the oversized-creature vibe, keep an eye out for the big theme connector: a spangram that stretches across the puzzle from one side to the other.
Answers
Non-spangram theme answers: GIANT, MAMMOTH, BEHEMOTH, COLOSSUS, LEVIATHAN
Today’s spangram: SUPERSIZEIT
That spangram is found by starting at the S located at the end of the far-left vertical row, then winding and moving across the board from there.
For a smoother solve, many players find it helps to grab anything “long” first, even if you don’t recognize the word immediately. In Strands, early wins often reveal the theme direction—then the remaining connections feel almost inevitable.
Connections and other puzzle formats reward the same habit: once you suspect a category, commit to systematically checking word paths instead of guessing. That’s the fastest way to turn a grid from a maze into a map.
