NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Monday, November 11 (game #253)

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

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 Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert

NYT Strands today (game #253) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… To your health!

NYT Strands today (game #253) – hint #2 – clue words

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

RUSE
TRACT
PLACE
PLACED
HARM
CHARM

NYT Strands today (game #253) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

• Playing House

NYT Strands today (game #253) – hint #4 – spangram position

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

First: top, 4th column

Last: bottom, 4th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #253) – the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 523 on a blue background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #253, are…

NURSE
DOCTOR
SURGEON
PHARMACIST
DENTIST
SPANGRAM: MEDICALCAREER

My rating: Moderate
My score: 1 hint

I needed a hint to get started today, which is hardly unusual for Strands given that the theme clues can be on the cryptic side of things sometimes. Today’s was ‘To your health!’, which to me suggested ‘Things you say as you toast someone’ or similar – such as CHEERS. But I couldn’t find that or any others, so asked for my hint and got NURSE.

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At that point the task became rather more obvious, and I was able to find DOCTOR, SURGEON and PHARMACIST without too many issues. It took me a while to get the spangram, admittedly, but with that in place I spotted the final answer, DENTIST, and moved on.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Sunday, 10 November, game #252)

JUMP
CIVIL
STRONG
BUSINESS
BIRTHDAY
LEISURE
SPANGRAM: WELLSUITED

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and 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.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He’s also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).