NYT Strands Hints, Spangram and Answers for December 19, 2025 (#656)

Spoilers: The NYT Strands puzzle for Friday, December 19, 2025, is game #656. Its theme is “On the chopping block,” its spangram is MAKINGTHECUT, and the six theme words are CHIFFONADE, CUBE, DICE, JULIENNE, MINCE and SLICE.

Hints for Strands #656

The theme points to knife skills: the answers are words for ways to cut food. If you want a nudge before seeing the full list, Parade’s guide gives these opening letters, in answer order: CU, JU, DI, CH, SL and MI. The spangram begins MA.

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TechRadar suggests JUNKIE, BEEN, CHIME, FINED, LAKE and SHADE as words to find while searching for the board’s non-theme-word hint. These are clue words for earning an in-game hint, not puzzle answers.

What is the spangram today?

The spangram is MAKINGTHECUT (12 letters). TechRadar reports that it enters from the left side of the board at row three and exits on the right at row six. Parade describes its route as a mixture of vertical and horizontal movement.

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All answers for December 19, 2025

The theme is “On the chopping block.” The six theme words are:

• CHIFFONADE
• CUBE
• DICE
• JULIENNE
• MINCE
• SLICE

The answer set and game number are reported by the TechRadar guide, Parade guide, Try Hard Guides and the Strands archive.

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How Strands hints work

Strands is a New York Times word-search game. Find theme words that fill the board, along with a spangram that describes the theme and touches two opposite sides. Theme words highlight in blue; the spangram highlights in yellow and can consist of two words. You can drag across letters or tap them; when tapping, double-tap the final letter to submit. Finding three non-theme words earns an in-game hint that reveals letters from a theme word.

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