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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Alan Martin

NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #393 (Monday, March 31 2025)

NYT Strands on a cellphone.
Strands today: Quick menu

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "That's an equine of a different shade!" — isn't tough to decode, but still requires very specific knowledge that you may not possess.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #393, 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 #393, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #393.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #393 is... "That's an equine of a different shade!"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Describe the coats".

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

  • BUCKS
  • GROAN
  • LOOKS
  • PORK
  • GUNS
  • RUNTS
  • HOOK

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with H and ends with S.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's HORSECOLORINGS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #393?

Drumroll, please...

  • ROAN
  • CHESTNUT
  • BUCKSKIN
  • DAPPLE
  • PALOMINO
(Image credit: Alan Martin)

...and the spangram was HORSECOLORINGS.

Strands #393

“That's an equine of a different shade!”

💡🔵🟡🔵

🔵🔵🔵

Hi Strands fans. If you know little about horses, you're out of luck today. I am very much in this boat, so found today's game a tedious game of trial and error.

Thinking that the theme of "That's an equine of a different shade!" might be a direct quote from a film or TV show I hadn't seen, I used a clue. This revealed ROAN and I realized that, no, this really was about horses.

That's a problem, as I know nothing about horses. So, I did what I always do in this circumstance and try to tease out the spangram to break the board down into more managable halves.

This was easy enough, and I found the word HORSECOLORINGS spelt out from the middle of the board, then touching the top, before heading to the bottom.

From now on, I was guessing. Fortunately, I found CHESTNUT on the right-hand side, and that only left BUCKSKIN to connect immediately above it to complete the half.

On the left-hand side I found DAPPLE at the top. Fortunately, the single-file letters for 'P', 'A', 'L' and 'O' didn't leave much room for alternatives, and after a bit of trial and error I connected PALOMINO to complete a rather annoying puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #392 right here.

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