Hungry for answers.
The New York Times Strands puzzle drops every morning, and today’s edition, puzzle number 854, feels particularly friendly to anyone with a dog. 🐶
You know how some days the words just hide better than others. That is not the case today. Though if your brain isn’t already in the kennel, the unscrambling might give you pause.
What’s The Gist?
The theme is Barking up the right tree.
A little extra context if that rings no bells. “Doggone it” serves as the primary hint. It is all about canines. Specifically, breeds or types of them.
Stuck.
Scanned the grid yet? Every time you pin down three words that are four letters long, the game unlocks one of those tricky theme answers. It is a bait and switch tactic. Find the small stuff, get the big reward.
Here are some filler words I dug up to trigger those hints:
– PANS
– SNAP
– POINT
– HEED
– HUNT
– SIEVE
– SPAN
– POINTED
– HEEDS
Note: You don’t have to use mine. Any valid four-letter-plus word works.
The Answers
So what are you actually looking for.
The goal is simple enough on paper. Find every word that ties to the theme, including the spangram—that’s the long word that stretches across the whole board. When everything clicks into place, the entire grid fills up. No letters left on the sideline.
Here is the non-spangram roster. All dog-adjacent.
HOUND
POINTER
TERRIER
SPANIEL
RETRIEVER
And then there is the big one.
The spangram. It wraps up the theme entirely. If you got the list above, the spangram probably leaped off the screen at you. Or maybe it didn’t. Barking up the right tree usually helps, but sometimes the tree is stubborn.
