The answer to today’s NYT Strands (puzzle #855) is SUMMERTIME, and the theme “The growing season” makes the connection clear once the spangram is in place: every strand word in Monday’s grid is a verb meaning to grow, flourish, or expand.
If you want to work through the grid yourself before seeing the full solution, three hints are below. Skip past them for the complete answer.
Hints for NYT Strands #855
- Hint 1: Every theme word in the grid is a verb describing something growing, thriving, or expanding.
- Hint 2: Think of how a garden or a thriving business might be described at its peak – the words are all positive, active, and energetic.
- Hint 3: The spangram is one word and names the season that sits between spring and autumn, associated with warmth and rapid natural growth.
One more nudge if you are still working on it: the spangram always runs from one edge of the board to the other. If you can picture that season and spell it in full, you have the anchor that unlocks the rest of the grid. The full answer is below.
NYT Strands #855: Full Solution
- Theme: “The growing season”
- Spangram: SUMMERTIME
- Strand words: BLOOM, BURGEON, EXPAND, FLOURISH, SPREAD, THRIVE
The spangram SUMMERTIME gathers six growth synonyms under the season most associated with rapid natural expansion. BLOOM is the most immediately visual: flowers opening, plants reaching peak display. FLOURISH stretches slightly more figuratively, applying to anything that prospers under favorable conditions, a business, an artist, a talent. THRIVE is the broadest of the six, applicable to organisms, economies, and individuals alike. BURGEON is the word likely to cause the most difficulty; it means to grow or increase rapidly, but its relatively low everyday frequency puts it outside the vocabulary most solvers scan through first. SPREAD and EXPAND round out the set with words that carry the additional sense of taking up more space, not just becoming stronger.
The six-strand words are unusually cohesive for a Monday puzzle. Strands grids typically mix a metaphorical connection with a more literal one to provide difficulty contrast, but here all six words point to the same semantic region with only tonal variation between them. That coherence makes the theme discoverable quickly once any single-strand word is confirmed, but it also means the extra letters scattered through the grid will look like plausible theme words until the full six are locked in.
How difficult was Strands #855?
Monday’s puzzle sits on the accessible side of the Strands difficulty range. The theme becomes visible early if solvers start with common growth vocabulary – BLOOM and THRIVE are natural entry points, and at least one of them confirms quickly. The main friction is BURGEON, which shares enough letters with other common English words that it may not surface as a coherent strand immediately. Solvers who treat the B-U-R cluster as the anchor and build outward from there should find it without much resistance. The six-word count, one more than the typical five-word Strands grid, adds a small additional layer of complexity by leaving fewer unaccounted letters per confirmed strand.
Yesterday’s Strands (#854, July 5) carried the theme “Barking up the right tree” with spangram HUNTING BREEDS and five canine working categories as strand words. Full hints and the breakdown are in the NYT Strands July 5 answer article. For more from today’s Word Desk, Connections #1121 is also live with today’s four-group solution.
