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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteNeed a nudge on the Wednesday, December 17, 2025, NYT Strands puzzle? This is game #654, themed “Out of line.” Work through the clues below in order to keep spoilers limited; the full word list and spangram are in the final section.
Hints, from least to most revealing
- Theme: Out of line.
- Try these guesses: ROOT, SLOT, ROCKED, PLATE, WIRE, or DENT. TechRadar’s dated guide lists these as non-theme words you can try to earn in-game hints.
- Spangram length: 10 letters.
- Spangram endpoints: TechRadar places its first endpoint at the top of the board in column 3 and its final endpoint at the bottom in column 6.
How the hint mechanic works
Try Hard Guides describes earning a hint by finding three non-theme words of four or more letters; the hint reveals a theme word. The guides describe the spangram as a word that crosses between two sides of the grid. These are secondary guides’ descriptions, not confirmation from an official NYT rules page.
Full spoilers: December 17 Strands answers
Stop here if you still want to solve the board yourself.
- Theme: Out of line
- Theme words: ASKEW, ASLANT, CROOKED, LOPSIDED, UNEVEN, TILTED
- Spangram: ALITTLEOFF
TechRadar, Try Hard Guides, and Forbes agree on this answer set. The specific puzzle’s official NYT archive page was not available in the cited material, so the answers are supported here by those published guides.
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