Looking for Saturday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Monday is back, and a new week—and month—are upon us. It’s the final stretch for July, 2024. There will never be another July, 2024 in any of our lifetimes. I doubt any of us will be around for a new era at all—no new calendars, no new way of organizing time. We’re dated like that. Such is life.
For now, we must content ourselves with the tried and true, and with today’s Strands puzzle courtesy of The New York Times game section.
Strands is the newest game in the New York Times’ stable of puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Every day we’re given a new theme and then tasked with uncovering all the words on the grid that fit that theme, including a spangram that spans two sides of the board. Let’s solve today’s, shall we?
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: Book it!
Here’s an extra thematic clue to help guide you to the solution: Not a private book-lender.
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.
Here are the first two letters of every word, including the spangram, in today’s puzzle:
Today’s Spangram
Before we list all the words, I’ll tell you today’s Spangram and show you where that is on the grid.
This is your final spoiler warning!
Today’s Strands spangram is . . .
PUBLICLIBRARY
Here’s where the Spangram is on the grid:
All Today’s Strands Answers
If you need extra help, getting the rest of the words . . . spoilers below!
Here’s the full list of words:
- RENEW
- MEET
- READ
- STUDY
- BROWSE
- BORROW
- LEARN
Today’s Strands Breakdown
Despite having worked in not one, but two libraries—one public, the other a university library—and despite being a writer, an English Major, etc. etc. etc. I was still totally confounded by today’s Strands. I simply could not “uncover” the words. Even when I’d found a couple of the easiest ones like READ and MEET, I still wasn’t sure what came next. I found LIBRARY but it wasn’t a word, and it wasn’t until much later that I found PUBLICLIBRARY—today’s Spangram. I think I must have misspelled BROWSE because the first time I entered that one, it wasn’t correct. I found other words that didn’t fit the puzzle. And frankly, I’m not sure this puzzle was entirely fair itself. MEET isn’t a common function of libraries, at least compared to RENEWing books or BORROWING them to take home. This was a tough puzzle and I hope we get more Strands like it!
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!