NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Wednesday, July 24 (game #143)

Here's your Thursday Strands from the NYT, guaranteed to get you thinking. It certainly got my gray matter working, at least. There are hints below if you need them.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Screen time

NYT Strands today (game #143) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• PORT
• RANT
• MATE
• COVER
• FIVE
• SHEET

NYT Strands today (game #143) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Picture house

NYT Strands today (game #143) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First: top, 4th column

• Last: bottom, 3rd column

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

NYT Strands today (game #143) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #143, are…

• CANDY
• POPCORN
• FEATURE
• PROJECTOR
• TRAILERS
• SPANGRAM: MOVIETHEATER

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

I can't decide if this is a really easy one and I was just not quite on my game, or if it's moderately difficult; I've gone with the latter above, because the theme clue was vague enough that I needed that one hint to get going.

That gave me CANDY, and other than a brief flirtation with the idea that it might be actors – not helped by the fact that the word ACTOR could be made in the grid – I was able toi find the rest fairly quickly. POPCORN was the key; once I had that it was blindingly obvious what the theme was, and I uncovered the remaining solutions swiftly after.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 23 July, game #142)

• SUPERLATIVE
• EXCELLENT
• ICONIC
• PERFECT
• SUPREME
• SPANGRAM: CHAMPION

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to h ow to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.