NYT Strands hints and answers for Monday, August 3 (game #883)

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Sunday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, August 2 (game #882).

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

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… There’s nothing like it

NYT Strands today (game #883) - hint #2 - clue words

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

GLARE
QUEEN
SOIL
SAIL
SIDE
LAID

NYT Strands today (game #883) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 10 letters

NYT Strands today (game #883) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

• First side: top, 4th column

• Last side: 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 #883) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #883, are…

ONLY
UNIQUE
SPECIAL
EXCLUSIVE
SINGULAR
SOLE
SPANGRAM: ONEOFAKIND
My rating:Easy
My score:Perfect

I had a trio of old songs buzzing around my head while playing this game.

The most dominant was soul classic There’s Nothing Like This by Omar, thanks to the theme of the day, but it was competing for earworm space with The One and ONLY by Chesney Hawkes and Free Nelson Mandela by SPECIAL AKA.

Fortunately, that didn’t distract me from a fairly straightforward game — although I did get some letter soup at the end while attempting to connect SINGULAR.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Sunday, August 2, game #882)

AMBITION
GOAL
PLAN
PURPOSE
OBJECTIVE
INTENTION
SPANGRAM: AIMHIGH

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.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye. Previously known by the pseudonym the Pop Detective, his journalistic career began making up stories about Madonna's addiction to sausage rolls (this is not true by the way). A man of few talents, his career is rich and various and includes the highs of interviewing Elton John and Blur; and the lows of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing on a Channel 5 documentary about Peter Kay, and fact-checking the instruction manual for a German cooker. Somehow still affording to live in North London he is at his happiest riding his bicycle and shouting at pigeons.