NYT Strands! If you’ve played Strands before, you know the game offers a unique word-search twist with a fresh challenge each day. And if it’s the weekend, you may have noticed: Saturday puzzles often bring a bump in difficulty. But is that just our perception—or are the weekend editions genuinely tougher? You decide.
Before we dive into today’s theme, hints, and answers, here’s a quick refresher on how to play Strands:
How To Play NYT Strands
Strands is a relatively new daily word game from The New York Times that blends word search mechanics with clever thematic puzzles. It’s still in beta, so playing it daily helps determine whether it becomes a permanent fixture in the NYT Games lineup.
You’ll see a 6×8 grid of letters, and your task is to uncover words related to a common theme. Each word you find will highlight in blue.
But that’s not all—each puzzle contains one spangram, a special word or phrase that links the entire theme together. The spangram stretches from one side of the grid to the opposite, and it appears in yellow when found. The spangram may be a proper name, unlike the other theme words.
Themes vary widely—from synonyms and homophones to items in a category or steps in a sequence. Editor Tracy Bennett keeps the challenge lively by mixing easy puzzles with tricky curveballs throughout the week.
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Today’s NYT Strands Clue for June 21
“Goose eggs”
Not sure what that means? Don’t worry—we’ve got a secondary hint to help:
Today’s NYT Strands Hints for June 21
“A great absence”
That extra clue should steer you in the right direction.
So, what’s today’s puzzle all about? Once you start plugging in a few obvious answers, the whole board starts to click.
Today’s NYT Strands Spangram for June 21
The spangram for the June 21 Strands puzzle is:
DIDDLYSQUAT
A classic slang term for “nothing,” it brilliantly ties all the theme words together under a single humorous banner.
Full List Of Today’s Theme Words
Here are all the theme words you needed to find today:
- ZERO
- NOTHING
- NAUGHT
- NADA
- ZILCH
- ZIPPO
- BUPKIS
These words are all synonyms—or colorful variations—of the concept of “nothing.” From common usage like “zero” and “nothing” to more informal expressions like “zilch” and “bupkis,” the puzzle celebrates language’s many creative ways to say… well, absolutely nothing.
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Strategy & Commentary
This was one of those puzzles where the theme clue practically gives the whole thing away—“goose eggs” being a playful idiom for zero. Once I saw the word ZERO in the grid and confirmed it, the rest fell into place quickly.
Some words, like NADA and ZILCH, are frequent flyers in casual conversation and game shows. Others, like BUPKIS, lean into a more Yiddish-American slang territory. DIDDLYSQUAT—our spangram—feels like something you’d hear in a Southern courtroom drama or an old sitcom. It’s a delightfully expressive term, one that’s slightly silly yet perfectly thematic.
If there was a curveball today, it was likely ZIPPO. Many people are more familiar with ZIP, but both are valid slang terms for nothing, and ZIPPO added just enough variation to make solvers pause. For me, it was a one-minute sprint once I got going, and a perfect score made the experience extra satisfying.
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Final Thoughts
The beauty of Strands lies in its blend of logic, vocabulary, and lateral thinking. Today’s puzzle wasn’t overly complex but offered just enough challenge to feel fun and rewarding. The use of casual and regional slang in the answers added flavor and made the puzzle feel less formal and more conversational.
Will tomorrow’s Strands puzzle be trickier? Easier? Only one way to find out—keep playing daily, and let your word brain stretch a little more every time.
