NYT Strands January 25 2026 Answers
Puzzle #693
EDITED BY TRACY BENNETTConstructed by Christina Iverson
Today's theme
“The straight and narrow”
The board
Hints (no spoilers)
The spangram has 15 letters and starts with S
There are 7 theme words besides the spangram
SPANGRAM
STICKYSITUATION
THEME WORDS
BATONCANEDOWELPICKETPOLEPOSTSTAKE
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.