NYT Strands today – my hints and answers for October 3 (#579)

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Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle insteadthen click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, October 2 (game #578) .

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

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

NYT Strands today (game #579) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

•Today's NYT Strands theme is… Who's in charge?

NYT Strands today (game #579) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• NAMELESS

• FISH

• SHED

• RIDER

• DRIP

• DRAG

NYT Strands today (game #579) - hint #3 - spangram letters

How many letters are in today's spangram?

•Spangram has 10 letters

NYT Strands today (game #579) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: top, 4th column

Last side: bottom, 3rd column

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

NYT Strands today (game #579) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #579, are…

• BOSS

• MANAGER

• HEAD

• SUPERVISOR

• CHIEF

• DIRECTOR

• SPANGRAM: LEADERSHIP

• My rating:Hard

• My score:1 hint

The only possible alternative theme today was a search for things that needed charging, but after finding BOSS and MANAGER in quick succession it was obvious what kinds of words we were looking for – ones above my paygrade!

Hopefully you bossed this game. I did, but I also got lazy and took a hint to speed things up – my love of short cuts possibly demonstrating why I'm not management material.

DIRECTOR was my final word and it took me a surprising amount of time to work out. Over a year into playing Strands every day and I still get bamboozled. 

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, October 2, game #578)

• WISPY

• DAINTY

• GOSSAMER

• FRAGILE

• DELICATE

• SPANGRAM: HANDLEWITHCARE

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

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