Looking for Tuesday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! Happy Wednesday. You’re just about halfway there (or maybe not if you work weekends).
Today’s NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers are coming right up.
How To Play Strands
The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s in beta for now, which means it’ll only stick around if enough people play it every day.
There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.
You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links two opposite sides of the board. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Every letter is used once in one of the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and it’s possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you’re playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.
If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you’ll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words.
Be warned: You’ll need to be on your toes.
“Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones,” The New York Times notes. “Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles within a week, [Wordle and Strands editor Tracy] Bennett plans to throw Strands solvers curveballs every once in a while.”
What Is Today’s Strands Hint?
Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today’s Strands puzzle, I’ll reveal what the answer words are.
The official theme hint for today’s Strand puzzle is…
One thousand followers
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Expressions linked by a common word
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Strands answers.
I’ll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid. I’ll then tell you the other words and show you how they fit in.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Strands spangram is…
GRAND FINALE
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
The rest of today’s Strands theme words are…
- JURY
- PRIZE
- SLAM
- CENTRAL
- RAPIDS
- CANYON
- PIANO
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
Oh boy, this was a tough one to figure out.
The theme clue was a bit of a chinscratcher, so I needed more help. I unlocked a hint by finding SEAN at the bottom, and then LAID and PAIN in the center. The hint gave me the letters for JURY, which didn’t really clear up the theme.
One more hint might do it, I thought. SLICE in the bottom right, LAIR in the top right and LADS at the bottom unlocked another one. The hint gave me SLAM, which didn’t help much either. Hmm.
Nope, I needed an extra hint. DINE in the center, LIAR in the top right and CARS on the left gave me a third one. PIANO was the next theme word it gave me, on the bottom right. Okay, I’m a fairly smart person but I could not figure out the theme at all. That was frustrating. So another hint was needed.
GREAT and GRIP in the top right, followed by RARE in the middle gave me an unprecedented fourth hint to unlock PRIZE in the top right. I thought I had the spangram, but GRANDIOSE from top to bottom just put me a third of the way toward another hint. Sigh. PINE and PILE gave me a fifth hint.
CANYON finally brought the facepalm-inducing realization that the words were all linked by “grand.” Literally followers of one thousand. Spotting RAPIDS on the left and CENTRAL on the right finally let me see the spangram.
Overall, I used five (5) hints and the spangram was the final theme word I found. I was totally vexed today. Well played, NYT. We shall resume battle tomorrow.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Strands clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Thursday’s game if you need them.
Read the full article here
