NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, September 8 (game #189)

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… A royal shade

NYT Strands today (game #189) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• TAIL
• MOAT
• GOAT
• LAVER
• PLUME
• CHIDE

NYT Strands today (game #189) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• It's all red and blue

NYT Strands today (game #189) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First: left, 4th row

Last: right, 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 #189) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #189, are…

• LILAC
• MAUVE
• MAGENTA
• VIOLET
• PLUM
• LAVENDER
• ORCHID
• SPANGRAM: PURPLES

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

Here's a nice, simple Strands puzzle for the weekend, that merely involves finding tones of purple. The theme clue of 'A royal shade' rather gave the game away, because everyone knows that purple is the color of royalty (though I admit that I don't know why). I then spotted the spangram, PURPLES, as my first word, which was great as it divided the board neatly in half and made it easier to find the other answers.

Some of those were, admittedly, a little simpler to uncover than others; I thought of, and found, the likes of LILAC, MAGENTA, MAUVE and VIOLET very quickly, but had to work a little harder for LAVENDER and (particularly) ORCHID, the latter of which didn't occur to me as a shade of purple; orchids come in lots of colors, after all. But by the time I got to that there were only so many words that could be formed, so overall this was a straightforward Strands to play.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Saturday 7 September, game #188)

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

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.