Having trouble with the NYT Strand puzzle? Solving today's puzzle theme, “The Nose Knows,” requires a little technical knowledge

Below are the hints and answers for Strands #173 We'll start with the hints and then the full solution to Strands #173

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strands #173

The official theme for NYT Strands #173 is “The Nose Knows”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “Smells good”

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

Still having trouble? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions Today, it starts with a “C” and ends with an “S”

Scroll down to see what it is

COMMONSCENTS

Now, what is the answer to the strand in today's game #173?

Drumroll please

Spangram was COMMONSCENTS

Strands #173

“the nose knows”

??

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Hello Strands fans! Today is another topic I know nothing about While it was clear early on that “The Nose Knows” was about perfumes and fragrances, finding terms like SANDALWOOD was a bit on the tricky side, as it is not a field in which I can call myself an expert

It did not help that the COMMONSCENTS spangram is A) a pun and B) starts in the middle of the board Sure, I found the word “scents” fairly early on, but I didn't see how that could be the answer to spreading across the entire grid

All of this is a roundabout way of justifying my first turn using the clue to reveal a very unhelpful MUSK in the lower right corner

I racked my brain and realized that LAVENDER was also a well-used smell, followed by SANDALWOOD running along the right side, leaving enough space to see the beginning of the spangram: COMMONSCENTS

From there, the gap was filled All we had to do was The anagram “EDACR” in the upper left had to be CEDAR; once I found ROSE, all I had to do was decipher “MOELN” The latter didn't smell very good, so I opted for the former and had another tricky win

Reading this late in the day? The full article on Strand's solution to yesterday's Round 172 can be found here