NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, September 7 (game #188)

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Know your material

NYT Strands today (game #188) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• MUSIC
• SLIM
• FAIL
• DINE
• DINER
• DINES

NYT Strands today (game #188) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• What are you wearing?

NYT Strands today (game #188) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First: right, 4th row

Last: left, 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 #188) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #188, are…

• DENIM
• CHIFFON
• VELVET
• SATIN
• SPANDEX
• JERSEY
• MUSLIN
• SPANGRAM: FABRIC

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

I'm a simple kind of guy. I wear denim on my bottom half, cotton (or more likely polyester) on my top. And that's that. SPANDEX? VELVET? CHIFFON? Nope, nope and nope again. I have heard of them all, however, which is why I was able to solve today's Strands puzzle, albeit with one hint along the way.

The problem today was that lots of these words are unusually spelled: SPANDEX has that X in it, VELVET has two Vs, CHIFFON two Fs… it's not like they will have stood out unless you knew what you were looking for. As a distinctly unfashionable type, I didn't really, so this one took me a fair old time to solve it.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday 6 September, game #187)

• PORRIDGE
• BEDS
• CHAIRS
• MAMA
• BABY
• PAPA
• HARD
• SOFT
• SPANGRAM: THREEBEARS

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.