Today’s NYT Strands puzzle explores the sensory world of bad smells
The spangram THATSTINKS connects colorful terms for stinkiness
Theme words include slang, formal terms, and visceral descriptors like RANK and PUNGENT
Come on, there’s something wonderfully subversive in interrupting your day to indulge in a word puzzle. Strands isn’t so much a game; it’s your cover for skipping the chatter, getting a little turned around, and flexing that curiosity muscle. It’s a puzzle masquerading as play, or vice versa.
So, whether you’re dodging deadlines, sipping something warm, or just need a five-minute flirtation with your brain, here’s your intellectual treat for the day. Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is all about… the stink.
This one doesn’t beat around the bush; it smells, literally. The theme ties itself around the senses, particularly the one we wish we could switch off. It’s a bouquet of the worst order: nose-tighteners, room-clearers, and overall, ‘do not enter.’ It’s a puzzle that luxuriates in the pungent, the foul, and the irrevocably rank.
If you’re a first-timer: Strands presents you with an 8-by-6 grid of letters. Your task? Hunt down eight theme words that share something in common. They glow blue when you’ve found them.
And then, there’s the spangram, your golden cord. It runs the length of the board, from one end to the other, and it glows yellow when you find it. It not only fits the theme, it gives it a name. Consider it the puzzle’s mic-drop moment.
It’s not an observation, it’s a bodily reaction. ‘That stinks’ brings it all together with a scrunched-up nose and a dash of humor. A gut phrase that packs a punch and lingers. Call it catharsis in caps.
FOUL – The beginning stink. Classic, unmistakable.
REEKING – Not only smelly, but announcing it.
PUNGENT – It slices through the air like a knife slices through onions.
MALODOROUS – The SAT word for stench.
SMELLY – To the point. Childlike, yet precise.
RANK – That bad? Oh, yes. It’s rank.
(ROTTEN didn’t quite cut, but it hung around.)
Today’s Strands doesn’t hold back. It dives headfirst into the nose-wrinkling, eye-watering vocabulary of stink with relish. The puzzle is a bit dirty, a bit gross, but ultimately a pleasant-smelling testament that even the worst themes can serve up the most fulfilling ‘aha’ moments.
So go ahead, stick your nose in and take the plunge. Because in puzzles, as in life, even the losers are worth enjoying.