New York Times Strands puzzles July 19‑21 2026: themes, spangrams and solutions

The New York Times released three Strands word‑search puzzles between July 19 and July 21 2026. On July 19 the theme was “Big talk”; the spangram that stretched across the grid was SUPER SIZE IT and the answer list included words such as BEHEMOTH, COLOSSUS, GIANT, LEV​IATHAN and MAMMOTH. On July 20 the puzzle’s theme shifted to “Small talk”. The spangram was ITSY BITSY and the strand words were MINUSCULE, MICROSCOPIC, MINIATURE, TINY and LITTLE. For July 21 the theme was “WRITE THERE”; the ten‑letter spangram was STATIONERY and the solutions comprised ENVELOPE, LETTERHEAD, FILE, NOTE‑PAD, CARD, SHEET and related stationery terms. All articles note that Strands is part of the NYT Games subscription portfolio, which the newspaper uses to drive daily reader engagement and subscription growth.