Looking for Friday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Welcome back, Strandistas! I’m back to help you with your daily Strands for the week, taking over from my colleague Paul Tassi. It’s been a couple weeks since I was in charge of this column and I’m happy to be back, especially because today’s puzzle was so much fun.
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: Carle classic.
Here’s an extra thematic clue to help guide you to the solution: A very hungry children’s book.
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 . . .
HUNGRYCATERPILLAR
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:
- SALAMI
- APPLE
- WATERMELON
- PICKLE
- LEAF
Today’s Strands Breakdown
This was a fun one, bringing me back to the days when my kids were young and we’d read books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are and so forth. I also like how this grid is visually, with the spangram and WATERMELON both almost spiralling around the center. I wasn’t sure what Carle classic meant until I found LEAF, which I found right after finding PILLAR. As soon as I saw LEAF, I knew PILLAR was part of CATERPILLAR and when that didn’t work I sought out HUNGRY and pieced the two together. From here, WATERMELON came easily enough and then the rest of the words were easy enough.
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!