NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #166 (Friday, August 16 2024)

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle theme — "This or that" — is a little confusing at first, but once you grasp what it's getting at, it gets a lot easier.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #166, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #166, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #166.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #166 is... "This or that"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "A game of contrasts."

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

• FARM
• FAME
• BRISK
• NIBS
• BEANS
• SKIS
• DEAN

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it both starts with 'O' and ends with 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's OPTIONS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #166?

Drumroll, please...

• SWIM
• SINK
• BREAK
• MAKE
• DOUBLE
• NOTHING
• FEAST
• FAMINE

...and the spangram was OPTIONS.

Strands #166

“This or that”

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Hi Strands fans. This one seems pretty tough at first, as the theme - "This or that" - is so vague that it could mean anything.

But as soon as I got SWIM on the board, I realized it was going to be about paired contrasts from phrases, so immediately hunted down SINK which I found in the top-right corner of the board.

After that, it was plain sailing. I found BREAK immediately above SWIM, which obviously pairs with MAKE. The same was true for DOUBLE which I found on the left-hand side: a clear match for NOTHING, which was tucked in the bottom left corner.

I now had enough information to get the spangram of OPTIONS which I found spread from left to right along the middle of the board. That, in turn, left two isolated answers ready to bag: FEAST in the top left, and FAMINE just inside the bottom half.

A nice, fun straightforward one today. More like this, please!

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #165 right here .