NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #321 (Saturday, January 18 2025)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)

Strands today: Quick menu

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "O ___! My ___!" — is not only tricky to decode, but the answers aren't obvious either.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #321, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #321, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #321.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #321 is... "O ___! My ___!"

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Fictional authority figures (or maybe heroes)".

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

PAINT
STAIN
VAIN
RANGERS
CLOAK
NUDE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with C and ends with N.

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Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's CAPTAIN.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #321?

Drumroll, please...

HOOK
PLANET
CRUNCH
KANGAROO
OBVIOUS
UNDERPANTS

...and the spangram was CAPTAIN.

Strands #321

“O ___! My ___!”

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Hi Strands fans. This was an annoyingly tricky puzzle. It turns out that the theme of "O ___! My ___!" refers to the Walt Whitman poem "Oh Captain! My Captain", but that's something it took me a clue to figure out.

I had initially been looking for exclamations ("heavens", "goodness", "golly", etc.) but coming up empty I used a clue which revealed HOOK.

When I accidentally connected PLANET to its right, I realized this was about fictional captains, so duly connected the spangram of CAPTAIN across the middle of the board.

The remaining answers proved tricky. I couldn't see any of my likely candidates (Ahab, Kirk, Picard, America), so had to do things a little less tactically. I found CRUNCH in the top right, followed by KANGAROO on the left-hand side to complete the top half of the grid.

There were two answers on the bottom half, and neither jumped out to me. After a lot of trial and error, I connected OBVIOUS (which, ironically, was anything but) on the right-hand side, and that left just UNDERPANTS on the left to complete a rather tricky puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #320 right here.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

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