Looking for Thursday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey there, everyone! Today is my last at-bat for Strands coverage for a couple of weeks. My colleague Paul Tassi will step up to the plate tomorrow. Hope you have a great weekend and that you don’t have too much trouble finding the theme words in the coming days.
In the meantime, 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 at least two sides of the board, but it may not start or end there. 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. Sometimes you’ll need to fill the missing word(s) in a phrase. On other days, the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The difficulty will vary from day to day, and the puzzle creators will try to surprise you sometimes.
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…
Staff members
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
There are eight words to find today, including the spangram.
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…
NOTATION
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
The rest of today’s Strands theme words are…
- SIGNATURE
- REST
- FLAT
- MEASURE
- CLEF
- SHARP
- NATURAL
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
I thought SINGER in the top left might have been a theme word, because hey, that’s a job. I figured I might as well unlock a hint, so SIGN and SIRE gave me the letters for FLAT. Hmmm. So, we’re probably not looking for literal members of staff here.
Back to the drawing board. SING, SIRS and SAINT (all still in that top-left corner) opened up CLEF. So, musical notation it is. Sure enough, I found the spangram next, followed by NATURAL.
It’s been a long time since I looked at any musical notation (I tried keyboards as a youngster but later took up guitar and relied on tabs), so I needed some help. TRUE, MUTE and EASE gave me the letters for REST, but not before TRES and ERST brought me two-thirds of the way to my next hint.
MANI gave me another hint and the letters for SHARP in the bottom left. I should have gotten that one. FANE on the right, followed by FIST and SOFA gave me MEASURE. That left me with SIGNATURE to wrap things up.
Not an ideal way for me to close out my week on the Strands ones and twos, but I had fun all the same. I used a whopping five hints and the spangram was the third theme word I found.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Strands clues and answers. Be sure to check Paul’s blog for hints and the solution for Saturday’s game if you need them.
