Loading puzzle...

NYT Strands Answer & Hints — “The musical fruit”, May 23, 2025

Stuck on the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands puzzle? Here are progressive hints and the full answer for the “The musical fruit” puzzle (Strands #140 of 510 in our archive). Every reveal is hidden by default — click to open the ones you need.

Spoiler warning. The answers below are for the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands puzzle. Scroll past this section if you want to solve it yourself first.
Hint 1: The themeReveal

The theme for the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands puzzle is “The musical fruit”. Every theme word and the spangram connects back to this phrase, so think about what related words might fit a 6×8 grid of 48 letters before you start scanning.

Hint 2: Spangram length and first letterReveal

The spangram for the “The musical fruit” puzzle is 9 letters long and starts with the letter B. It touches two opposite edges of the grid, as every NYT Strands spangram does.

Hint 3: How many theme wordsReveal

Besides the spangram, the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands puzzle has 7 theme words. Together with the spangram, they use every letter on the 6×8 grid exactly once.

Answer: Full spangramReveal

The spangram for the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands “The musical fruit” puzzle is BEANSALAD. It spans two opposite edges of the 6×8 grid and captures the theme directly.

Answer: All theme wordsReveal

Here are the 7 theme words for the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands “The musical fruit” puzzle:

  • BLACK
  • CANNELLINI
  • FAVA
  • GREEN
  • KIDNEY
  • NAVY
  • PINTO

Plus the spangram BEANSALAD, that’s every word on the grid — all 48 letters accounted for.

Answers for the May 23, 2025 NYT Strands puzzle. Strands Unlimited is an independent fan archive — today's NYT Strands is free on nytimes.com/games/strands.

About the "The musical fruit" NYT Strands puzzle

The theme "The musical fruit" sets the scene for this Strands puzzle with a descriptive phrase that hints at what the hidden words have in common. Descriptive themes in Strands work like a title for a category — they paint a picture, and the theme words are the details that fill it in. This food & drink puzzle asks you to find words that fit within the world the theme describes, with the spangram acting as the key that connects them all.

At 7 theme words, this is one of the denser puzzles in the archive. The grid is packed, so words will be closer together. With 9 letters, the spangram is mid-length — long enough to stand out in the grid but still requiring careful scanning to trace from edge to edge. Originally published on a Friday, As puzzle #140 of 510+, this one comes from the middle of the Strands collection, when the puzzle makers had hit their stride.

#140
Puzzle Number
7
Theme Words
9
Spangram Letters
Challenging
Difficulty

How to approach "The musical fruit"

  • The theme paints a picture. Brainstorm 5-10 words that come to mind when you read it, then scan the grid for those words or close variants.
  • There are 7 theme words packed into this grid. Try to find 2-3 shorter words first to free up space and make the remaining words easier to trace.
  • If you get stuck, try finding non-theme words (any valid 4+ letter English word) to earn hints. Each hint reveals one letter of an unsolved theme word.
PreviousAll NYT Strands answersNext

More puzzles from May 2025

31 Sat
Next to the bobby pins
30 Fri
And here's the kicker ...
29 Thu
It's a little buggy
28 Wed
Top contenders
27 Tue
A strange new world
26 Mon
Body language
View all May puzzles

More NYT Strands puzzles

Jan 9
For cubs fans
Dec 15
Palette episodes
Oct 29
Nevermore!
Jun 29
Hue are my sunshine
Feb 19
Pick your own prefix
May 31
Places to go
May 30
We'll be there
May 29
E-I-E-I-O

Sister Sites · More logic puzzles

Queens
Region logic, daily + 1,500 puzzles
Patches
Region-stitching puzzle
Tango
No 3-in-a-row pattern
Zip
Path-drawing puzzle
Mini Sudoku
Compact sudoku
Strands Unlimited is an independent fan archive of past Strands puzzles. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The New York Times Company. NYT Strands is a trademark of The New York Times Company. Today's daily puzzle is free at nytimes.com/games/strands.