Looking for Sunday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Welcome back to Monday, Strands players! I call Wordle solvers “Wordlers” but I guess we don’t have a word for Strands players. “The Stranded” sounds a little bleak, though sometimes playing this game I feel a little stranded. Stranders perhaps?
In any case, today’s puzzle was very tricky and it took me quite a while to figure it out, though I suppose there will be a certain segment of the population that gets it right away. It’s all about context. Isn’t it always?
Alright, scroll on for some extra help with this puzzling Strands puzzle!
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.
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 Sign language.
Here’s an extra hint to help guide you to the solution: Constellation.
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 . . .
ASTROLOGY
Here’s where the Spangram is on the grid:
Once you find the Spangram it’s typically pretty easy to find the rest of the day’s words, but I had trouble with a couple of these. Here’s the full list:
- Bull
- Goat
- Scorpion
- Virgin
- Archer
- Scales
- Twins
Another very tricky Strands today! Yesterday had me befuddled, but today was just as bad. I had to use a couple hints unfortunately, but they didn’t do much to help. First I got “Bull” and then “Goat” and that was actually the opposite of helpful, since I thought I was looking for animals, though I really had no clue what animals had to do with sign language. I’d tried “Stop” and that didn’t work. You really have to think outside the box sometimes.
I got “Virgin” and then I was even more confused. It wasn’t until I stumbled on “OLOGY” that I made any real headway. At that point I was looking for anything that could fit at the beginning of that word. ONTOLOGY didn’t work. At last I spotted it: astrology. Suddenly all the previous words made sense. They were all constellations! I found “archer” next and then “twins” and finally “scorpion” though that last one gave me a tough time.
All’s well that ends well, of course. 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!
