Looking for Sunday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Well, today’s Strands really was a treat. One of the cleverest I’ve seen so far. Once it clicks, it clicks, but it’s a bit of a tricky one at first. Not as tricky as French words, though! I genuinely get such a kick out of these, but today’s was one of my favorites since the game launched as a New York Times puzzle beta.
With that said, we’re back to the daily grind and time is precious so let’s dive right in! Hints and answers below . . . .
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: This and that
Here’s an extra hint to help guide you to the solution: It’s raining cats and dogs.
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 . . .
PARTNERS
Here’s where the Spangram is on the grid:
Today’s Strands was a little puzzling until you figured out it was all about opposites in common phrases. Here’s the full list of words:
- Trial and Error
- Smoke and Mirrors
- Give and Take
- Peace and Quiet
Today’s Strands Breakdown
This was a unique Strands simply because usually there’s a theme that unites all the words, but this time there was a structure to that theme. The words are mostly unrelated, and not quite exactly opposites. Rather, they work as PARTNERS in various common phrases. I found TRIAL first and then GIVE and was perfectly perplexed how these two words had anything in common. Then I thought, “Maybe this is relationship stuff.” You know, in relationships you have to give. Dating is like a trial. I found PARTNERS—the SPANGRAM—next, which reinforced this idea.
Then I found PEACE and immediately discovered SMOKE, which ruined my theory completely. I looked on the other side of the grid and found the word that would clue me in to the structure: ERROR. I realized TRIAL and ERROR were the THIS and THAT from the theme. Very quickly the rest of the pieces fell into place: TAKE (to go with GIVE) then MIRRORS (I originally looked for FIRE but there were no F’s) to go with SMOKE. Then QUIET to go with PEACE.
What makes this an especially clever STRANDS is that all the word pairings are separated by the SPANGRAM, so each half of each phrase is on the opposite side of the grid. That must have taken some work! Some, er, trial and error I imagine! Now I just want some peace and quiet, thank you very much . . . .
How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.
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