NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, October 8 (game #949)

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 NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… A star is born

NYT Strands today (game #949) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• MACE
• CREATE
• MINCE
• BRAIL
• CLUE
• WINNER
• TUNA

NYT Strands today (game #949) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 8 letters

NYT Strands today (game #949) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First side: left, 5th row

• Last side: right, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #949) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #949, are…

• FAME
• CELEBRITY
• REPUTE
• ACCLAIM
• RENOWN
• EMINENCE
• SPANGRAM: LUMINARY

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

After the Lady Gaga movie, the first thing today’s theme made me think of was FAME, so I immediately went searching for it in the game and found it lurking on the right-hand edge.

CELEBRITY was the next most obvious word, but from here the synonyms were less obvious — although, thankfully, easy to spot, along with a spangram that was unfashionably short at just eight letters..

Later in my search I found the word ”winner” and was shocked that it wasn’t featured in the game, because, let's face it, the talented folk who can be described as achieving ACCLAIM, RENOWN and EMINENCE are winning at life.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, October 7, game #948)

• BUBBLEGUM
• BARBIE
• SHOCKING
• QUARTZ
• FLAMINGO
• SPANGRAM: TICKLEDPINK

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.