NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, August 18 (game #168)

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… What do you make of this?

NYT Strands today (game #168) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• CRUSH
• BASS
• BASIN
• SALE
• SEAL
• VOTE

NYT Strands today (game #168) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Artistic merit

NYT Strands today (game #168) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First: right, 4th row

Last: left, 6th row

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

NYT Strands today (game #168) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #168, are…

• PAINT
• BRUSH
• CANVAS
• MOLD
• EASEL
• PALETTE
• CHARCOAL
• SPANGRAM: ARTCLASS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: Perfect

Art is not my thing. I can appreciate it, sure, but ask me to actually draw or paint something and, well, you'd be better off asking my dog. I am terrible. As a result, this art-themed Strands puzzle from the NYT probably caused me more problems than it might otherwise have done.

There's nothing truly difficult about it, and I worked out what the theme was relatively early on (after finding PAINT and BRUSH by accident). However, I simply couldn't think of things that an artist would need beyond those two things. CANVAS was, admittedly, an easy one that I eventually spotted, but the likes of EASEL and PALETTE took me ages to find. Still, no complaints from me – it's good to get the brain working and I solved it in the end.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 17 August, game #167)

• LEAF
• APPLE
• PICKLE
• SALAMI
• WATERMELON
• SPANGRAM: HUNGRYCATERPILLAR

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.