NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, May 4 (game #62)

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
(Image credit: New York Times)

Your Saturday Strands is here, ready to put your brainpower to the test as you attempt to uncover hidden words within a grid of letters. Today's puzzle is really not too bad, but if you're struggling for the solutions then scroll down for my hints – and keep going for my commentary.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren
Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He's authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today's Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He's also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.

NYT Strands today (game #62) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

Today's NYT Strands theme is… The horror

NYT Strands today (game #62) - hint #2 - clue words

What are some good clue words today?

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

SCORE

LOVE

SLEET

SPATE

HOST

OVERT

NYT Strands today (game #62) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

Watch with the lights on

NYT Strands today (game #62) - hint #4 - spangram position

Where does today's spangram start and end?

Start: bottom, 4th column

End: top, 2nd column

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #62) - the answers

NYT Strands answers for game #62 on a blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #62, are…

  • PSYCHO
  • POLTERGEIST
  • HALLOWEEN
  • HOSTEL
  • SCREAM
  • SPANGRAM: SCARYMOVIE

  • My rating: Easy
  • My score: Perfect

This was a pretty easy Strands puzzle. Some of that was due to the theme being something close to my heart – namely horror movies. I've watched every one of the answers, and many more besides, which definitely helped me to solve it. But it also benefitted from some of the letter placement making it easier to find the words. Take PSYCHO in the bottom left corner: there's a grid of six consonants together in that corner of the board, which means the ways in which the letters can be combined are drastically reduced. I was able to find that answer with little effort as a result, which – together with the theme hint of 'The horror' – confirmed what I was looking for. After that, the task was a mere matter of me wracking my brain for classic horror flicks. POLTERGEIST was the only slightly tricky one, simply because I couldn't spell it…

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.


Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday 3 May, game #61)

  • JUNGLE
  • PISTACHIO
  • FOREST
  • OLIVE
  • ARTICHOKE
  • EMERALD
  • SPANGRAM: GREENS
  • CLOWNFISH
  • SKUNK
  • CHIPMUNK
  • TIGER
  • BUMBLEBEE
  • ZEBRA
  • SPANGRAM: STRIPED

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's currently in Beta and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

Marc McLaren
Global Editor in Chief

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He's also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).