NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, September 18 (game #929)

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Shake on it

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• LETTERS
• TEAM
• PATE
• GEAR
• POET
• TONAL

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 13 letters

NYT Strands today (game #929) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First side: top, 2nd column

• Last side: bottom, 4th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #929) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #929, are…

• COVENANT
• PACT
• TREATY
• CONTRACT
• AGREEMENT
• SPANGRAM: LETSMAKEADEAL

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

COVENANT is a pretty unusual word to begin a word search with, but that's how my game played out today, because I was stumped and looking for non-game words; I was in the process of bagging “coven” when I saw the much longer word.

From here, though, after my slow start, I roared through the remainder of the search at an agreeable pace.

I cannot remember deals ever really being in the news at all, but in 2026 the making of them, or indeed the failure to make them, seems to be the only news there is. Frankly, I missed the days when we muddled along.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, September 17, game #928)

• PEANUTS
• ZIPPY
• MUTTS
• PICKLES
• ZITS
• BLONDIE
• SPANGRAM: THEFUNNYPAGES

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.