Today’s NYT Strands puzzle for Sunday, August 16, 2026 is number 896. The theme is “Learn by doing” and the spangram is JOBTRAINING. The five other theme words all name a person learning a trade under someone who already knows it.
If you would rather solve it yourself, here are three hints in ascending order of how much they give away.
- The nudge for today’s board is “Follow my lead.”
- Every theme word is a person, not an action. Each is a title you would hold while learning, rather than something you would do.
- The spangram is two words run together, eleven letters, and it is the formal name for what the other five are all going through.
In the spangram’s orientation, today’s is neither cleanly horizontal nor cleanly vertical. It runs as a mix of the two, turning through the grid rather than tracking a single row or column, which is what makes it awkward to spot even after you have worked out what the word has to be.
The spangram for Strands #896 is JOBTRAINING.
Here is the full answer list.
- INTERN
- PROTEGE
- DISCIPLE
- APPRENTICE
- MENTEE
- JOBTRAINING (spangram)
The set is tighter than most Sunday boards. INTERN, APPRENTICE and MENTEE are workplace terms, while PROTEGE and DISCIPLE reach further back and carry more weight. A disciple follows a teacher rather than an employer, and a protege is chosen rather than hired. That distinction is the only real texture in the theme, and it is probably why the editors settled on “Follow my lead” as the nudge instead of something about work.
MENTEE is usually the last one found. It is the least common of the five in ordinary speech, and because it sits so close in meaning to the more familiar INTERN and APPRENTICE, solvers tend to burn a hint looking for a longer word that is not on the board.
APPRENTICE is the most useful opening find. At ten letters, it eats a large share of the grid, and clearing it narrows what is left enough that PROTEGE and MENTEE tend to fall quickly afterwards.
Saturday’s puzzle, Strands #895, was themed “Sacred space” with the spangram IN CHURCH and six objects found inside one: PULPIT, BIBLE, ALTAR, HYMNAL, CANDLES and LECTERN.
Related Posts
