Strands #988 Hints & Answers Today, November 16, 2026

Strands #988 from The New York Times (NYT) is the puzzle for Monday, Nov. 16, 2026, and its theme clue is “What’s the big idea?” Today’s board hides six theme words and a 14-letter spangram, and Christina Iverson constructed it with Tracy Bennett as editor. New to the game? Read our Strands page for the rules. Hints come first, and the answers wait in a marked spoiler section at the end.

Spangram hints

• Hint 1

  It is a spoken phrase of three words, a cheerful remark that plays on the theme.
• Hint 2

  Fourteen letters, starting with T and ending with L.
• Hint 3

  Its first letter sits in the bottom-left corner of the board.
• Reveal the spangram

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

  t_____________ (1 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 2

  th____________ (2 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 3

  tha___________ (3 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 4

  that__________ (4 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 5

  thats_________ (5 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 6

  thatsj________ (6 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 7

  thatsju_______ (7 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 8

  thatsjus______ (8 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 9

  thatsjust_____ (9 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 10

  thatsjusts____ (10 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 11

  thatsjustsw___ (11 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 12

  thatsjustswe__ (12 of 14 letters)

  Show letter 13

  thatsjustswel_ (13 of 14 letters)

  Show the last letter

  thatsjustswell (14 of 14 letters)

Theme word hints

Read the clue’s word “big” literally. There are six theme words, listed here from shortest to longest:

• 4 letters, starts with G

  what a seedling does in spring.

  Show the word

  Grow
• 5 letters, starts with B

  the puffy, overfull feeling after a heavy meal.

  Show the word

  Bloat
• 5 letters, starts with S

  a sudden rush upward, like a wave of electricity.

  Show the word

  Surge
• 6 letters, starts with E

  what a company does when it opens new branches.

  Show the word

  Expand
• 7 letters, starts with E

  to make a photo or a print bigger.

  Show the word

  Enlarge
• 7 letters, starts with I

  what you do to a tire or a balloon with a pump.

  Show the word

  Inflate

Where the spangram runs on Monday’s board

Rows below count from the top and columns from the left. The spangram starts in the bottom-left corner (row 8, column 1) and runs along the bottom row for three tiles. It then climbs the third column from row 8 up to row 2, turns right along row 2 to column 6, and ends in row 1, column 5. That path touches the bottom and top edges of the board.

The theme words sit on either side of that vertical line. Three of them touch the left edge between row 1 and row 7, and the longest of that trio also stretches along the top row as far as column 4. The other three fill columns 4 to 6 from row 3 down, and the shortest, at four letters, takes the last two rows of that side. The six theme words use 34 letters, which with the 14-letter spangram fills all 48 tiles.

Solving tips

Show the solving tips

Start with the spangram, since its path splits the board in two. Any ordinary words you spell, three at a time, earn a hint that lights up the letters of a theme word. Work the left side and the right side separately: below row 1, no theme word crosses the spangram’s column.

Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar or the November 2026 printable calendar.

More of today’s puzzles: Wordle hints and Connections hints. Yesterday’s board is on the Strands #987 page.

Today’s Strands answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

• Spangram: That’s Just Swell
• Theme words: Bloat, Enlarge, Expand, Grow, Inflate, Surge

All six answers fit the clue: each theme word means to get bigger, and the spangram puns on the theme, since swell also means to get bigger. The spangram is a single string of 14 letters on the board, with no spaces or apostrophe.

We checked the answers against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #989 arrives at midnight.

Yesterday's Strands answer

Strands on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026 had the theme clue "Foiled again!". The spangram was Batmanvillain, and the theme words were Firefly, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow. Yesterday's hints and full solution.