NYT Strands January 20 2026 Answers
Puzzle #688
EDITED BY TRACY BENNETTConstructed by Christina Iverson
Today's theme
“Sneak-ing around”
The board
Hints (no spoilers)
The spangram has 12 letters and starts with J
There are 7 theme words besides the spangram
SPANGRAM
JUSTFORKICKS
THEME WORDS
EYELETHEELLOGOSHOELACESOLETONGUEVAMP
Checked against the official NYT Strands solution
How Strands works
Strands is the NYT's daily word-search twist: find the theme words hidden in the 6×8 board — letters connect in any direction and every letter gets used exactly once. The spangram describes the theme and touches two opposite sides of the board. Play free at nytimes.com.