Need support for today's NYT strand? Interpreting today's theme of “moonlighting” is pretty simple, but it does require knowledge of certain terminology.

Below are some tips to help you with strand #287 and the answers when you need them. Start with a few tips to get the complete answer to Strand #287.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #287.

The official theme for NYT Strands #287 is... “Moonlight.”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: ”The Shape of the Sky.”

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still having trouble? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with 'L' and ends with 'E'.

Scroll down to see what it is.

LUNARPHASE.

Now, what's the answer to today's strand?

Drumroll, please.

... Spangram was LUNARPHASE.

Strands #287

“Moonlighting”

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Hello Strands fans! Today's puzzle was reasonably straightforward until the last word. Thankfully, it was a case of just trying the remaining letters until something worked out so I was still done reasonably quickly.

But I got a little too far ahead of myself. When I saw the “moonlight bathing” theme, it seemed obvious to me that this would be about the phases of the moon. And sure enough, I saw “LUNARPHASE” written from left to right in the middle of the board.

All I had to do was remember what it was; “WAXING” and “WANING” were the two that immediately came to mind. Between those two and the spangram was FULL.

When I saw the word CRESCENT I was given a great start to the bottom half. Then the “Q” and “U” in the lower right reminded me of the word QUARTER and I suddenly had to find one answer.

I didn't know it. But since I was left with only one answer, I just had to try the letters until something worked. I finally got there with GIBBOUS, but it was a word I had never heard of, so there was an element of luck!

Are you reading this in a slow time zone? The full article about Strand's solution to yesterday's Round 286 can be found here.