Looking for Sunday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, folks! Welcome to the start of a new week. I’ve no doubt it’s going to be a smashing one for you.
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 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.
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.
“Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones,” The New York Times notes. “Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles within a week, [Wordle and Strands editor Tracy] Bennett plans to throw Strands solvers curveballs every once in a while.”
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…
To put it mildly
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Sanitized exclamations
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…
EUPHEMISMS
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
The rest of today’s Strands theme words are…
- JEEPERS
- SHOOT
- GADZOOKS
- DARN
- GOLLY
- FUDGE
- HECK
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
I saw JEEPERS on the left right away, which made today’s spangram immediately clear. I went hunting for it and spotted it running down the center of the grid. SHOOT was then easy enough given the boxed-off letters.
I then went to my usual strategy of looking at the corners, which got me GADZOOKS on the top left, followed by DARN. HECK in the bottom right cleaned up that side of the grid. That left two words in the bottom left corner. It only took me a moment to spot GOLLY, then FUDGE.
I didn’t need a hint today, meaning that I had a perfect game. The spangram was the second word I found, gosh darn it.
That’s all there is to it for today’s Strands clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog for hints and the solution for Tuesday’s game if you need them.
