NYT Strands
NYT Strands

NEW YORK — The New York Times' Strands puzzle on Saturday asked players to pick up the pace, with a theme built around words for moving very fast.

Strands No. 979, for Nov. 7, 2026, has the theme "In the blink of an eye," with seven theme words and one spangram to find.

Hints come first, followed by the full answers.

How Strands works

In Strands, players connect adjacent letters on a grid to find words that fit a daily theme. The spangram describes the theme and stretches across the board, and every letter is used exactly once. Finding non-theme words earns hints.

Words that can count toward hints today include SHOW, TASKER, STRUT, STALE, TRUTH and THREAT.

Theme hints

The title is a little misleading. Technobezz advised looking for words that describe moving very quickly, noting that the prompt points toward speed rather than eyesight.

All the hidden words are verbs or terms for fast movement.

Spangram hints

The spangram has 13 letters across three words, with letter counts of 5, 3 and 5. It starts with W and ends with Y.

It is a casual question you might ask someone who seems to be in too much of a rush.

Position may also help. TechRadar places the spangram's start on the left side in the fourth row and its end on the top side in the fifth column.

Today's Strands answers

Spoiler warning: the full solutions follow.

The answers are FLASH, HURTLE, RUSH, STREAK, WHIZ, WHOOSH and ZOOM, and the spangram is WHATSTHEHURRY.

The spangram, WHAT'S THE HURRY, ties the theme together, since each answer describes something happening fast enough to pass in the blink of an eye.

Strategy tips

Rare letters offer a quick way in. TechRadar's writer started with rare letters, so ZOOM was the first word found, which instantly confirmed that the theme was about speed.

Once ZOOM and WHIZ are found, the Z's are out of the way and the rest of the board gets easier. Spotting the long spangram early also helps because it splits the grid into smaller sections.

The puzzle earned good reviews. TechRadar called it a classic and very satisfying game that was not too easy and had no baffling words.

Yesterday's answers

Friday's spangram was FORESTFLOOR, and the theme words were ACORN, BRANCH, HUSK, LEAVES, MOSS, PINECONE and TWIG.

A new Strands puzzle appears at midnight in each player's time zone. Strands No. 980 arrives Sunday.