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This guide covers NYT Strands puzzle #685, the Saturday, January 17, 2026 edition. The theme is “That’s putting it mildly!” and the answers are CURSES, DRAT, FIDDLESTICKS, PHOOEY and TARNATION, with the spangram FOILEDAGAIN. If you only want a nudge, the hints come first. The full answer list sits below a spoiler break.
Hints for puzzle #685
Work through these in order. Each one reveals a little more without giving the whole board away.
- Theme: “That’s putting it mildly!”
- Gentler nudge: The theme words are PG-rated interjections, the kind of exclamations you might say in front of children.
- First letters, in answer order: CU, DR, FI, PH, TA. The spangram begins with FO.
- Spangram length: 11 letters.
- Spangram position: It starts on the bottom edge in column 1 and ends on the top edge in column 4. Its path mixes vertical and horizontal movement.
- Words that unlock in-game hints: TARN, PONY, RATE, PHASE, SACKED, CAKE. These are clue words the game uses when it gives you a hint; they are not theme answers.
Spoilers: the full answer list
Stop here if you want to solve the rest yourself. Everything below gives away the answers.
| Theme word | Letters | First two letters |
|---|---|---|
| CURSES | 6 | CU |
| DRAT | 4 | DR |
| FIDDLESTICKS | 12 | FI |
| PHOOEY | 6 | PH |
| TARNATION | 9 | TA |
| FOILEDAGAIN (spangram) | 11 | FO |
The spangram: FOILEDAGAIN
FOILEDAGAIN is the theme connector. It runs from the bottom edge, column 1, to the top edge, column 4, and touches two opposite sides of the board. The game highlights it in yellow, while regular theme words stay blue once found.
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The one disputed answer: DRAT or DRATS
TechRadar and Try Hard Guides both list DRAT, which is the form that matches the four-letter pattern in the first-letter clues. Parade lists DRATS. Use DRAT as the answer to enter. If the game does not accept it, check that the word you found has exactly four letters before looking for an alternative, because the spangram and the other theme words are not affected by this difference.
How Strands works, and how it applies here
Strands is a word-search style puzzle published by the New York Times. Its rules, as Parade describes them from the Times, are simple, but a few details matter for this board.
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- Find theme words to fill the board. Once found, a theme word stays highlighted blue.
- Form a word by dragging across letters, or by tapping them. If you are tapping, double-tap the last letter to submit the word.
- Theme words do not overlap each other on the board.
- The spangram describes the puzzle theme, touches two opposite sides of the grid, and is highlighted yellow. It can contain two words, which is not the case for #685, where FOILEDAGAIN is a single word.
- Hints are earned as you go. For every three non-theme words you find, the game gives you a hint that reveals letters from a theme word. If a hint is already active when you earn another, the new hint shows that word’s letter order instead.
The game is played on the NYT Games site and app; this guide does not cover subscription or access details.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How reliable the answer list is
The answer list for #685 comes from secondary puzzle guides, not from an official Times archive page. TechRadar and Try Hard Guides agree on five of the six words, with the DRAT question above as the only point of difference. The puzzle date and number match across all three sources: Saturday, January 17, 2026, puzzle #685.
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The clue words in the hint list are useful for checking whether a hint is pointing you the right way. They can be quick to lose their meaning once you have a theme word in view, so use them as a cross-check rather than a solving method.
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Every answer in this guide is final, and the spangram and first-letter pattern are consistent across sources.
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