NYT Strands for Sunday, May 25, 2025 (game #448) has a spring-cleaning theme. The theme clue is “Get out the dust buster!” If you want to solve it yourself, start with the hints below; the complete answers and spangram are farther down.
Hints for May 25, 2025
Theme clue
“Get out the dust buster!”
General theme
Think about organizing and clearing out belongings. The clue points to spring cleaning, not to a particular cleaning appliance.
Starting letters
The regular answers begin with RE, LA, DO, DE and SE. The spangram begins with SP.
Optional clue words
These words can be used to unlock hints in the game: GLADE, GREED, CLUES, PLUG, ROLL and SLEET.
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How the Strands hints work
In Strands, you find theme words on the board, and the spangram names the theme while touching two opposite sides. Finding three non-theme words earns a hint that reveals letters belonging to a theme word. The route can bend across the grid; for this puzzle, TechRadar reports that the spangram first touches the left edge at row 4 and last touches it at row 6. That edge information does not give a complete letter-by-letter route.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Full answers for game #448
Spoilers below: the complete solution follows.
- SELL
- DONATE
- LABEL
- DECLUTTER
- REORGANIZE
Spangram
SPRING CLEANING (shown without a space in some answer lists as SPRINGCLEANING; 14 letters).
The regular answers describe ways to clear, sort, label and find new homes for belongings. Together, they point to spring cleaning as the activity linking the theme words.
Quick Recap
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