NYT Strands Hints Today for #793: Clues and Answers for Tuesday, May 5, 2026

If your morning routine involves coffee, doomscrolling, and a frantic search for NYT Strands puzzle 793 hints, you have come to exactly the right place. Today’s puzzle is rated moderate in difficulty, which in NYT puzzle language means it will make you feel clever if you crack it and mildly humiliated if you do not. The theme is “Get up!” and trust us, the answers are going to make perfect sense once you see them.

What Is NYT Strands?

NYT Strands is a free daily word puzzle from The New York Times that sits somewhere between a word search and a brain teaser. Players are presented with a 6×8 grid of letters and tasked with finding hidden themed words. Every single letter on the board gets used, and words can snake in any direction: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or some chaotic zigzag that looks like it was drawn by someone who skipped breakfast.

Read Also: NYT Strands Hints and Answers for June 4, 2026 (Puzzle #823)

In addition to the standard theme words, each puzzle features a special word called the spangram, which encapsulates the overarching theme and stretches across the board, touching two opposite sides of the grid. Finding the spangram first is often a solid strategy for cracking the rest of the puzzle.

How to Unlock Hints in Strands

If you find yourself completely stumped, Strands has a built-in hint system. For every three non-theme words of four or more letters that you find, you unlock a hint. The hint lights up the letters belonging to the next theme word, without showing you how they connect. Stuck even after that? A second hint will trace the word letter by letter. Just know that your hint count shows up in your final score, so use them wisely (or don’t, no one is judging).

Today’s NYT Strands Theme for Puzzle #793

The theme for today’s puzzle is “Get up!” and if that is not enough of a clue, here is another nudge: think about an annoying beeping sound that most people would happily throw against a wall every single morning.

Still drawing a blank? Today’s seven hidden words are all features of the spangram, which itself is a very familiar piece of bedroom technology that has been waking people up (and occasionally being slapped into silence) for decades.

Non-Theme Helper Words for Clues

To unlock the in-game hint system, you will need to find four-letter words that are on the board but are not part of the theme. Here are a few to get you started: TUNA, DIRE, LOCK, ZOOS, LATE, MATE, MITE, TONS, DENS.

How Many Letters Are in Today’s Spangram?

Today’s spangram is a 12-letter word made up of two words combined. It starts with the letter D and ends with the letter K. It begins in the second row and snakes its way down to the last row of the grid.

Today’s NYT Strands Answers for Puzzle #793 (Full Spoilers)

If you have made it this far, you are ready for the full reveal. The seven theme words in today’s puzzle are ALARM, RADIO, TIME, DATE, SNOOZE, DISPLAY, and TUNER. Every single one of these is a feature or function you would find on a classic piece of timekeeping technology.

Today’s NYT Strands Spangram Answer

Today’s spangram is DIGITAL CLOCK. It starts with the D in the second row and snakes all the way down to the C and K in the final row of the grid. Once you see it, the whole “Get up!” theme clicks into place beautifully.

Recent NYT Strands Answers

In case you missed a few recent puzzles, here is a quick catch-up.

Monday, May 4 had the theme BRANCH OUT with answers including DOGWOOD, ASPEN, CEDAR, BIRCH, EUCALYPTUS, and CYPRESS.

Sunday, May 3 used THAT’S ODD with words like STRANGE, WEIRD, PECULIAR, UNUSUAL, BIZARRE, and QUIRKY.

Saturday, May 2 centred on LINE DANCE with PONY, WIZARD, SAILOR, COASTER, SCUFF, KICK, and SHUFFLE.

Friday, May 1 was themed ALOHA SPIRIT with LUAU, POKE, HULA, UKULELE, PINEAPPLE, and MACADAMIA.

Thursday, April 30 featured CONDENSATION with VAPOR, MIST, AEROSOL, STEAM, HUMIDITY, and DRIZZLE.

Read Also: Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Spangram and Answers for Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Our Take

There is something oddly poetic about a word puzzle themed around a digital clock, considering most people pick up their phones first thing in the morning and immediately open a word game. Today’s puzzle is essentially asking you to think about the very device you are ignoring while you play it. Classic NYT.