NYT Strands #883 for Monday, August 3, 2026 has the theme “There’s nothing like it.” The spangram is ONEOFAKIND. Three hints appear below before the full answer list.
NYT Strands Hints for Today – August 3, 2026
Hint 1: The theme connects words that all mean the same thing: being unique, unmatched, or without equal. Think of synonyms for “one of a kind.”
Hint 2: The spangram is a compound phrase most people use in everyday speech to describe something extraordinary or irreplaceable. Written without spaces, it is ten letters long.
Hint 3: One strand word is just four letters and means the only one. Another is a five-letter Latin-rooted word used in grammar to describe a single noun. A third is an eight-letter word most associated with premium products or access.
NYT Strands Answer Today – #883
Theme: “There’s nothing like it”
Spangram: ONEOFAKIND
Strand words: EXCLUSIVE, ONLY, SINGULAR, SOLE, SPECIAL, UNIQUE
Word Notes
The spangram ONEOFAKIND spans the full board as the compound phrase “one of a kind” written without spaces. The phrase describes something without equal – a person, object, or talent so distinctive that no direct comparison exists. The idiom has been in English since at least the 18th century and today appears in everything from auction catalogues to talent-show commentary. The grid’s ten-letter path from edge to edge puts every letter to work: O-N-E-O-F-A-K-I-N-D carries two O’s, two N’s, and no repeated consonants beyond that pairing, making it a distinctive search target once solvers recognise the phrase being spelled out.
UNIQUE (six letters) is the most internationally recognisable strand word – borrowed directly from French in the 17th century, itself from Latin unicus, meaning one and only, from unus (one). In strict usage, unique means singular rather than merely unusual, though the colloquial “very unique” is widely used in informal English. SINGULAR (eight letters) shares the same Latin root family: singularis, meaning alone of its kind, from singulus (single). In grammar, singular describes a noun referring to one entity; in more literary usage it describes something remarkable or unusual. Both words arrive in the puzzle as formal, Latinate synonyms for the phrase the spangram spells out.
SOLE (four letters) and ONLY (four letters) are the puzzle’s shortest entries and its most common everyday words. SOLE derives from Latin solus (alone); it appears in legal English (“sole proprietor,” “sole heir”) and in music through “solo,” a related form. ONLY is a native English word from Old English anlic, meaning one-like, built on an (one) plus lic (like or body). Both SOLE and ONLY are the kinds of high-frequency words that can be missed precisely because they are too simple – solvers scanning for longer entries overlook the shortest ones hiding in plain sight on the grid edges.
SPECIAL (seven letters) and EXCLUSIVE (nine letters) are today’s more commercial-register strands. SPECIAL, from Latin specialis (particular, individual), is used across retail, dining, and broadcasting to describe something set apart from the ordinary. EXCLUSIVE, from Latin excludere (to shut out), carries the specific sense of being limited to a select group – an exclusive club, an exclusive interview, an exclusive product line. The word’s commercial ubiquity in luxury branding makes it the most familiar long entry in today’s set, even if its Latin origin is less immediately obvious than UNIQUE or SINGULAR.
For previous Strands solutions, see NYT Strands for August 2, 2026 (#882) and NYT Strands for August 1, 2026 (#881).
