The Monday, August 25, 2025, NYT Strands puzzle is game #540. Its theme is “Back to school”; the spangram is SUPPLIES. The five theme words are CALCULATOR, BACKPACK, NOTEBOOKS, LAPTOP and FOLDERS.
Hints for Strands #540
Use these in order if you want to reveal the solution gradually:
- Theme clue: Back to school.
- Spangram hint: It names the category shared by the answers.
- Spangram: SUPPLIES.
Full answer list
Spoilers: the complete set of theme words is below.
- CALCULATOR
- BACKPACK
- NOTEBOOKS
- LAPTOP
- FOLDERS
CHATGPT is not a valid answer; Forbes included it as a joke, and the date-indexed answer archive does not list it.
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Strands is a daily word-search game played on a six-by-eight letter grid. Find words that fit the puzzle’s theme. Theme words highlight blue. The spangram connects two opposite sides of the board and identifies what the theme words have in common; it highlights yellow.
Sources for this dated solution
The dated Forbes coverage and a date-indexed Strands answer archive agree on the theme, spangram and five-word list. The official NYT game page was not available for direct confirmation, so this answer is cross-checked against those two sources.
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