NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, December 12 (game #649)

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NYT Strands hints and answers for Friday, December 12 (game #649) News By Johnny Dee Contributions from Marc McLaren published 11 December 2025

My clues will help you solve the NYT's Strands today and keep that streak going

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(Image credit: New York Times) Jump to:

• Hint #1: Today's theme
• Hint #2: Clue words
• Hint #3: Spangram letters
• Hint #4: Spangram position
• Today's answers
• Yesterday's answers

Looking for a different day?

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 Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, December 11 (game #648).

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.

You may like

• NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, December 4 (game #641)
• NYT Strands hints and answers for Saturday, December 6 (game #643)
• NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, December 3 (game #640)

NYT Strands today (game #649) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Shakespearean titles

NYT Strands today (game #649) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SPEW
• CHASE
• HARD
• TRACE
• THEME
• MUSE

NYT Strands today (game #649) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

• Spangram has 7 letters

NYT Strands today (game #649) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First side: left, 4th 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.

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NYT Strands today (game #649) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #649, are…

• TEMPEST
• MIDSUMMER
• SHREW
• TWELFTH
• MERCHANT
• MERRY
• SPANGRAM: THEBARD

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

After yesterday’s long and difficult spangram, today was the opposite end of the spectrum – short, simple and quite easy to spot.

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TEMPEST aside, today’s search gave us partial “Shakespearean titles”, but they were all common enough words, if not all from the most famous plays; no place here for Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, December 11, game #648)

• EPILOGUE
• ADDENDUM
• POSTSCRIPT
• FOOTNOTE
• SPANGRAM: ANDFURTHERMORE

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.

TOPICS Wordle Johnny DeeContributor

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.

With contributions from

• Marc McLarenGlobal Editor in Chief

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