Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's puzzle theme — "Commuter benefits" — isn't hard to decode, but might still give you a few problems when hunting down the answers.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #178, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #178, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #178.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #178 is... "Commuter benefits".
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Leave the car at home".
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- MORON
- SPORT
- FAIL
- RUBY
- CARTS
- FIERCE
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with 'P' and ends in 'T'.
Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's PUBLICTRANSPORT.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #178?
Drumroll, please...
- FERRY
- SUBWAY
- TRAIN
- MONORAIL
- STREETCAR
..and the spangram was PUBLICTRANSPORT.
Strands #178
“Commuter benefits”
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Hi Strands fans. Despite being an obvious topic, the theme of "Commuter benefits" wasn't all that straightforward for me.
Perhaps that's because some of the modes of travel were a bit more obscure ("bus" though in there, is too short to register) or maybe it's because while I found the "transport" part of the spangram easily enough, I couldn't see the "public" part of it for quite a while.
In any case, FERRY was the first type of transport I found, tucked away in the top-left corner. That was followed by SUBWAY in the bottom left and TRAIN in between the two.
At this point, however, I was stumped. I couldn't see a way to connect the spangram and I was out of transport ideas, so I used a clue. MONORAIL was revealed - fair enough, I have heard of these, though they aren't super common on my side of the Atlantic!
I was now ready to tackle possibly the longest spangram I've seen before. I finally spotted the word "public" and realized I could add it to "transport" to spell PUBLICTRANSPORT.
I'm glad that took up most of the remaining letters, because I'm not sure I'd have got the final answer without it doing so. In the UK, you'd call a STREETCAR a "tram", so it wasn't something I was looking for (though I have seen "A Streetcar Named Desire", so I can't plead ignorance here.)
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #177 right here.