NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #374 (Wednesday, March 12 2025)

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Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today’s theme — “Bearing gifts” — is tricky to decode, even with an answer or two on the board.

Below, we’ve compiled some useful hints for Strands #374, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We’ll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #374, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #374.

Today’s NYT Strands answer — Today’s theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #374 is… “Bearing gifts”.

And here’s an unofficial hint from me: “God-given abilities”.

If you’re still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

ROSES
STARE
STARLING
STRESS
STRODE
SINGS
KILLS
STALE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with P and ends with Y.

Scroll down to find out what it is…

It’s PRODIGY.

Today’s Strands answers

So, what are today’s Strands answers for game #374?

Drumroll, please…

KNACK
PROWESS
SKILL
TALENT
CHOPS
STRENGTH
FLAIR

Strands #374

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

…and the spangram was PRODIGY.

Strands #374

“Bearing gifts”

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Hi Strands fans. I must admit that I didn’t get the double meaning of the theme — “Bearing gifts” — until quite late on in the puzzle.

Despite that, I didn’t have to use any clues after I accidentally found my first word — KNACK — in the top-left corner. When I connected PROWESS to its right, I confirmed this was all about synonyms for ability.

With that in mind, I found TALENT below KNACK and SKILL floating in the bottom half of the grid. I was then able to connect the spangram of PRODIGY across the middle. “Bearing” in the context of the theme, presumably refers to childbirth — hence “prodigy”.

Three more words were left to find, all in the lower half. I found CHOPS spelt backwards along the bottom, followed by STRENGTH directly below the spangram. All that was left was to connect FLAIR to complete the puzzle.