Strands #983 Hints & Answers Today, November 11, 2026

Strands #983 is the Wednesday puzzle for Nov. 11, 2026, and The New York Times (NYT) sets the clue “Work it out.” The gym is open, and the board lists what a trainer might have you build. Christina Iverson constructed it, edited by Tracy Bennett. An eleven-letter spangram ties it together; what a spangram must do is laid out on our Strands page. Hints come first, and every answer waits in the spoiler section at the end.

Spangram hints

• Hint one

  what a trainer calls a set of muscles that work together, as “leg day” targets.
• Hint two

  two words. The first is the tissue that contracts; the second means a cluster or set.
• Hint three

  eleven letters across two words, starting with M.
• Reveal the spangram

  Musclegroup
• Letter by letter: the spangram, one more letter per tap.
  Show the first letter

  m__________ (1 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 2

  mu_________ (2 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 3

  mus________ (3 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 4

  musc_______ (4 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 5

  muscl______ (5 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 6

  muscle_____ (6 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 7

  muscleg____ (7 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 8

  musclegr___ (8 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 9

  musclegro__ (9 of 11 letters)

  Show letter 10

  musclegrou_ (10 of 11 letters)

  Show the last letter

  musclegroup (11 of 11 letters)

Theme word hints

Each answer is a muscle or a muscle set, shortest to longest:

• 4 letters, starts with L

  the broad back muscles, clipped from a Latin name.

  Show the word

  Lats
• 4 letters, starts with P

  the chest muscles, short for pectorals.

  Show the word

  Pecs
• 5 letters, starts with Q

  the four-headed muscles on the front of the thigh.

  Show the word

  Quads
• 6 letters, starts with B

  the front of the upper arm, the one you flex for a photo.

  Show the word

  Biceps
• 8 letters, starts with O

  the side abdominals that twist the torso.

  Show the word

  Obliques
• 10 letters, starts with H

  the muscles at the back of the thigh.

  Show the word

  Hamstrings

The spangram knots up top; the big word anchors the bottom

Rather than run in a line, the spangram tangles. It enters on the left edge in the second row and starts switching direction at once, stepping down, sideways and back up through the upper-left and the center. Across seven turns it never holds one direction for more than three tiles, and it exits on the right edge in the third row. All of its work stays between the second and fifth rows.

That hands the bottom of the board to the longest answers. The ten-letter H word fills the bottom-right, the five-letter Q word sits beside it, and the four-letter L word and four-letter P word tuck into the bottom-left, each boxed inside a single quarter. Up top, the six-letter B word runs straight across the first row, with the eight-letter O word just below. The bottom-right quarter is the busiest, with all twelve of its tiles given to theme words.

Solving tips

Show the solving tips

Three of the six are gym slang clipped short and ending in S, so hunt those first. The spangram zigzags so tightly that any path running straight for four tiles or more belongs to a theme word, not to it.

Keeping score across the week? The printable weekly calendar and the November 2026 printable calendar are made for it.

More for Wednesday: Wordle, Connections and Pips.

Today’s Strands answers (spoilers)

Spoilers below. Turn back to keep working at it.

• Spangram: Muscle Group
• Theme words: Biceps, Hamstrings, Lats, Obliques, Pecs, Quads

Each theme word is a muscle or set of muscles, and the spangram, Muscle Group, is the term a trainer uses for such a set.

Yesterday's Strands answer

Strands on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026 had the theme clue "Influentially online". The spangram was Contentcreator, and the theme words were Demo, Reaction, Review, Skit, Tutorial, Vlog. Yesterday's hints and full solution.