NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Thursday, July 25 (game #144)

PSA: today's Strands is a toughie, unless you're familiar with the theme in question. I will say no more other than that you'll find some hints below – and you might need them today.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… All that jazz

NYT Strands today (game #144) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SOUL
• SOME
• SINUS
• WINGS
• DICE
• FLUNK

NYT Strands today (game #144) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Kind of blue?

NYT Strands today (game #144) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First: left, 5th row

• Last: right, 4th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #144) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #144, are…

• SWING
• FUNK
• FUSION
• ACID
• COOL
• BEBOP
• MODAL
• RAGTIME
• SPANGRAM: SUBGENRE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 3 hints

I'm not a jazz guy. I've tried, but it's just never happened for me. And that made today's Strands pretty darn tough.

Seriously, I needed three hints to solve it and even then had to spend a chunk of time trying permutations of letters in order to find the last couple. I have heard of most of these SUBGENRES, as the spangram would have it, but not MODAL or COOL, and I didn't know that BEBOP or RAGTIME were jazz as such.

I'd also take some issues with the spangram, which doesn't seem in any way specific to jazz; there are subgenres in almost all types of music, so why is it the spangram here?

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday 24 July, game #143)

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

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.