NYT Strands Tips and Answers for Monday, July 20 (Game #869)

Home screen of NYT Strands on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background — (Image credit: New York Times)

Want a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears every day at midnight for your time zone – which means some people are still playing “today’s game” while others are playing “yesterday’s.” If you are looking for the Sunday puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands Tips and Answers for Sunday, July 19 (Game #868).

Strands is the latest pun from The New York Times after Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s a lot of fun. It can be difficult, though, so keep reading my Strands tips.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections Today and Quordle Today pages for tips and answers on these games, as well as Marc’s Wordle Today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: The information on NYT Strands today is below, so don’t continue reading if you don’t want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #869) – clue #1 – theme of the day

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• The theme of today’s NYT Strands is… Small Chat

NYT Strands today (game #869) – clue #2 – clue words

Play one of these words to unlock the game’s hint system.

COIN
SLOT
METER
JUNK
SUIT
MUSTY

NYT Strands today (game #869) – clue #3 – spangram letters

How many letters are there in today’s spangram?

• Spangram has 9 letters

NYT Strands today (game #869) – clue #4 – spangram position

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

• First side: left, 4th row

• Last side: right, 6th row

That’s right, the answers are below, so DON’T SCROLL FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #869) – the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 869 on blue background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #869, are…

TINY
LITTLE
MICROSCOPIC
MINIATURE
TINY
SPANGRAM: ITSYBITSY

My rating: Easy
My rating: Perfect

Yesterday’s theme was “big talks” and today it’s “small talks.” I can’t wait to talk to psychic tomorrow.

Anyway, I digress. After the relatively easy passages of TINY and LITTLE, we moved on to the more specialized descriptions of very small things, with MICROSCOPIC bringing me a small thrill of pleasure in connecting an 11-letter word.

After yesterday’s weird “supersizeit” spangram, I was expecting a similar descriptive snake today, so ITSYBITSY took me a while, even though it matched the search perfectly. Either way, it’s a spangram that demonstrates that small things are more fun than big things.

Answers from yesterday’s NYT Strands (Sunday July 19, match #868)

GIANT
MAMMOTH
COLOSSUS
MONSTER
LEVIATHAN
SPANGRAM: SUPERSIZEIT

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the not-so-new pun from The New York Times, after Wordle and Connections. It’s now a full member of the year-old NYT games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I have a complete guide on how to play NYT Strands, with tips for solving it, so check it out if you’re struggling to beat it every day.

Johnny is a freelance pop culture journalist who has been writing about the internet, music, football and famous people since the iPhone was a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye. Previously known as Pop Detective, his journalistic career began by making up stories about Madonna’s addiction to sausage rolls (not true, by the way). A man of little talent, his career is rich and varied and includes interviews with Elton John and Blur; and the downside of interviewing Right Said Fred, appearing in a Channel 5 documentary on Peter Kay and fact-checking a German cook’s instruction manual. Somehow, still having the means to live in north London, he is happiest riding his bike and shouting at pigeons.