Looking for help with today’s New York Times Strands puzzle? You’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re stuck on a tricky clue, trying to spot the spangram, or just need a little nudge to get going, this daily guide offers hints, clues, and full answers to keep your streak alive. We’ll walk you through the puzzle step by step without spoiling everything upfront—so you can solve at your own pace.
Looking for Monday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
NYT Strands Tuesday, July 22nd Guide
Tuesday is here which means we’re one day closer to the last weekend of July. Summer break is almost over for a lot of kids, though summer itself is still going strong. The Autumnal Equinox isn’t until late September. In any case, come rain or shine, summer or winter, we have words to uncover. Let’s solve this Strands!
How To Play Strands
Strands is a daily word puzzle from The New York Times that challenges your vocabulary and pattern-recognition skills. Here’s how it works:
The Goal
Find all the hidden theme words in the grid. Every puzzle has a theme, and the words you need to find will relate to it. Some themes are incredibly obvious, while others require more creative thinking. Generally you’ll need to find between 5 to 9 words in total.
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The Spangram
One special word—called the spangram—will stretch across two or more sides of the grid and tie directly into the theme. It’s key to unlocking the puzzle, tying together all the other words and reinforcing the daily theme.
Finding Words
- Words must be at least four letters long.
- Words can be formed by dragging through adjacent letters (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).
- You can change direction as you trace a word, but you can’t reuse the same letter tile in a single word.
Here’s what a completed Strands puzzle looks like. The spangram is in yellow:
Helpful Hints
- Each time you find three non-theme words, you’ll earn a hint that highlights a theme word’s first letter.
- Use hints wisely to uncover trickier theme words.
Finishing the Puzzle
Once you find all theme words—including the spangram—you win the game! Play today’s puzzle right here.
Spoilers ahead.
Today’s Strands Hints
Read on for today’s theme and some hints to help you uncover today’s words. Before I reveal the answers, I’ll give you the first two letters of each word to help you get started.
Today’s Theme: Pet store purchase
Hint: All these items belong in one larger item.
Clue: It’s a watery purchase.
Here are the first two letters of each word:
Remember, spoilers ahead!
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Today’s spangram is: AQUARIUM
Here’s the full list of words:
- FILTER
- PUMP
- FISH
- PLANTS
- TANK
- ROCKS
- THERMOMETER
Here’s the completed Strands grid:
Today’s Strands Breakdown
I started by looking for words related to various pets. LEASH, BOWL, that sort of thing. Turns out, this was all related to one very specific kind of pet: FISH, though an AQUARIUM could be used for lizards or snakes as well. I’ve never owned any of these types of animals, so actually finding some of these words was a bit tricky, but it was all pretty straightforward in the end.
How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.
Be sure to check out my blog for my daily Wordle guides as well as all my other writing about TV shows, streaming guides, movie reviews, video game coverage and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
