NYT Strands hints, answers for September 13, 2026
The NYT Strands hints and answers you need to make the most of your puzzling experience.
Today's New York Times Strands puzzle hints were relatively straightforward for those familiar with the game. Strands is an elevated word-search game where players create words from linked letters in any direction, including up, down, left, right, or diagonal, and even with changing directions. Every letter in the grid is part of an answer, and each puzzle has a theme with a spangram—a word or phrase that spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
The hint for today's theme was "Top Secret," indicating that the words were related to counter-intelligence work, describing a spy. The spangram hint for today's puzzle was whether the spangram was vertical or horizontal, with the answer being that it was horizontal.
Today's spangram was "Undercover," and the full word list for September 12 included words such as Plant, Agent, Counterspy, Asset, Operation, Mole, and Meet. For readers looking for other daily online games, Mashable offers hints and additional puzzles, including Mahjong, Sudoku, and free crossword.
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