Looking for Friday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
Hey, everyone! I hope you’ve got an excellent weekend lined up. Perhaps you’re planning to start chatting about Strands with your friends and getting them to play. I’m going to do exactly that.
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…
FRAGILE: handle with care
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Not necessarily destructible or delicate. You’re looking for a specific word that links the others
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…
BREAKABLE
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
The rest of today’s Strands theme words are…
- BREAD
- PROMISE
- RECORD
- SILENCE
- HEART
- MOLD
- SWEAT
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
I think I’ve started to find my approach to Strands, as I often need a hint to kick things off. To unlock one, I found DEAR in the middle, SAIL in the bottom left and BOAT on the bottom right. That unlocked the letters for MOLD, which didn’t really help me figure out the theme. At least SWEAT was right next to that.
I then spotted BREAD on the top left. Still no closer to figuring out the theme. I needed another hint at that point. HAIR and LAIR in the bottom left, then PRIME in the top center unlocked a second one. That gave me the letters for HEART.
The spangram and theme were still vexing me, so maybe one more hint would do it. KERB in the center bottom, ROLE in the bottom right and SMILE up top gave me another hint. This time around, it gave me RECORD in the top right. That also closed off the right rail and helped me finally figure out the spangram: BREAKABLE. That left me with PROMISE and SILENCE to wrap things up.
Overall, I used three hints. The spangram was the sixth theme word I found.
I don’t necessarily mind not getting a perfect game, but I’d like to limit my maximum number of hints to one going forward. I enjoyed today’s Strands though. It was certainly the trickiest one so far. And remember, only shooting stars break the mold.
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 Sunday’s game if you need them.
