NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, August 16 (game #166)

Today's Strands is a really fun one – but not necessarily the easiest. If you get a little stuck scroll down for my hints.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… This or that

NYT Strands today (game #166) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• TONG
• THING
• SATE
• FEAT
• TAME
• FLOP

NYT Strands today (game #166) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• One or the other

NYT Strands today (game #166) - 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 #166) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #166, are…

• SINK
• SWIM
• MAKE
• BREAK
• FEAST
• FAMINE
• DOUBLE
• NOTHING
• SPANGRAM: OPTIONS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

Strands is at its best when it plays with language, rather than just being collections of words within a simple theme (although they can sometimes be lots of fun to solve too). Today's is a good example: every answer here is part of a pair of words that together form a phrase that's used to mean OPTIONS, the spangram.

For instance, we have SINK or SWIM, DOUBLE or NOTHING, FEAST or FAMINE and MAKE or BREAK. Very clever. The trouble is that these games can be hard to identify. I uncovered SINK, MAKE and BREAK by accident before I realized what was going on, and even after that I had to do a fair bit of hunting to find the first half of each puzzle, before I could then look for the second (which was usually a lot easier to identify, obviously).

I got them all in the end, but it took me longer than some Strands puzzles. And that, ultimately, is a good thing.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday 15 August, game #165)

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

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.