Today's NYT Strands is live for Sunday, July 19, 2026 (Puzzle #868). Stuck on today's Strands? We've got progressive hints, from gentle nudges to full solutions, so you can solve at your own pace.
How Strands Works (New Players Start Here)
Strands hides themed words inside a 6x8 letter grid. Your mission: find every word connected to the day's theme. Letters link in any direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal) and words can twist and turn. Every letter gets used exactly once.
The spangram is the key word or phrase that captures the theme and stretches across the entire board, touching opposite edges.
Need a boost? Find any 4+ letter word (even non-theme words) three times, and the game reveals a hint highlighting theme word letters.
Theme Decoder
Today's Theme Prompt: "Big talk"
What It Really Means
You are hunting nouns used for beings or things of extraordinary size and power.
Think About...
- Ancient creatures of overwhelming scale.
- Legendary figures that tower over everyone else.
- Everyday labels for something unusually immense.
Spangram Clues
Orientation: Left to right across the board
Letter Count: 11 letters
Starting Zone: Row 8, letter 1
Progressive Spangram Hints
Hint 1 (Gentle): Think of a command to make something far larger than its standard form.
Hint 2 (Warmer): It sounds like an instruction you could give when upgrading an order to the biggest available option.
Hint 3 (Almost There): First letter is S, last letter is T
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SUPERSIZEIT
Word-by-Word Hints
Solve as many as you can before peeking. Each word includes escalating clues.
Word 1
Vague: An enormous and powerful entity.
Closer: This term comes from a huge biblical beast and now describes any massive organization or machine.
Letter Clue: Starts with B, 8 letters total
Answer
BEHEMOTH
Word 2
Vague: A figure of immense size or importance.
Closer: The ancient statue at Rhodes supplies the classic association for this towering noun.
Letter Clue: Starts with C, 8 letters total
Answer
COLOSSUS
Word 3
Vague: An exceptionally large being or dominant force.
Closer: Fairy tales use this noun for a towering humanlike figure, while business uses it for an industry leader.
Letter Clue: Starts with G, 5 letters total
Answer
GIANT
Word 4
Vague: A vast creature or institution with formidable power.
Closer: This biblical sea creature became a label for anything enormous and difficult to control.
Letter Clue: Starts with L, 9 letters total
Answer
LEVIATHAN
Word 5
Vague: Something notable for its tremendous scale.
Closer: Picture a shaggy Ice Age relative of the elephant, complete with long curved tusks.
Letter Clue: Starts with M, 7 letters total
Answer
MAMMOTH
Full Answers
Spangram: SUPERSIZEIT
Theme Words:
- BEHEMOTH
- COLOSSUS
- GIANT
- LEVIATHAN
- MAMMOTH
Puzzle Debrief
Difficulty Rating: Medium, because the shared idea is clear once one oversized noun falls, but BEHEMOTH and LEVIATHAN demand more specific vocabulary.
Trickiest Word: LEVIATHAN is the likeliest stumbling block because its biblical sea-creature sense is less common than its modern use for a huge organization or system.
Our Take: SUPERSIZEIT neatly turns the theme into an instruction, while BEHEMOTH, COLOSSUS, GIANT, LEVIATHAN, and MAMMOTH supply five distinct ways to describe immense scale. The mix of mythology, scripture, prehistory, and everyday figurative language keeps the list cohesive without making it repetitive.
