NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Thursday, August 15 (game #165)

Today’s Strands is a relatively easy one, in my experience, but I’ve compiled some hints for you below anyway, just in case.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

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 #165) – hint #1 – today’s theme

NYT Strands today (game #165) – hint #2 – clue words

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

• DROWN
• FOOT
• JOKER
• FOUR
• WREST
• ROLE

NYT Strands today (game #165) – hint #3 – spangram

NYT Strands today (game #165) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

NYT Strands today (game #165) – the answers

The answers to today’s Strands, game #165, are…

• COMIC
• FOOL
• CLOWN
• JESTER
• PRANKSTER
• BUFFOON
• SPANGRAM: YOUREKIDDING

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

If I didn’t write this column each day I wouldn’t always need to find hint words in Strands. And today was one of those days. While scanning the board for words I could include in my hints, I accidentally uncovered COMIC, FOOL and CLOWN, meaning I was halfway through the game before I should even have started. It was that simple!

The spangram was the hardest thing about it, actually; I was convinced it would include JOKE or JOKER in some way, but the J went into JESTER instead and the spangram was the less obvious YOUREKIDDING. But I doubt people will struggle today even with that in mind – the words are all just too obvious.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Wednesday 14 August, game #164)

• RANCH
• BUNGALOW
• CRAFTSMAN
• COLONIAL
• CABIN
• COTTAGE
• SPANGRAM: HOUSES

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He’s also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).