July 16, 2026#865archive
NYT Strands — July 16, 2026
Hints — one at a time
Hint 1 of 5
Every hidden word today is about abruptly changing where you're headed.
Hint 2 of 5
Think of the moves a driver, sailor, or hiker makes when the original route stops working.
Hint 3 of 5
One word is nautical slang for adjusting a sail's angle; another describes a sharp, jagged back-and-forth path.
Hint 4 of 5
A third simply means to depart from what was planned or expected.
Hint 5 of 5
The spangram runs diagonally starting in the fourth row and reads as two joined words describing what all the other answers cause you to do.
The answer — spoilers!
Reveal the full answer
Rerouting ...
CHANGECOURSE
DEVIATE · PIVOT · SWERVE · TACK · TURN · VEER · ZIGZAG
This puzzle by the numbers
- 12 letters
- 7
Counted from our own archive of NYT Strands answers — not published anywhere else.
