Looking for Monday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here.
Tuesday Strands time and we have a musical themed puzzle today, but with a very specific type of instrument. But first…
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.
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?
NYT hint first then we will move to a hint of my own that I think will push you further. The official hint is:
Striking sounds
My hint
Christmas season
You’ll understand that one soon enough.
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Time to start with the spangram and then move on to the full list of answers after that. The spangram is:
BELLTONES
And that is found here on the board:
Then the full list of answers is:
- KNELL
- TINKLE
- TOLL
- RING
- CHIME
- PEAL
- JINGLE
- CLANG
At first I didn’t know it was only going to be bell sounds, as there are plenty of percussion instruments and associated sounds in music, but if we’re just talking bells, plenty of obvious ones emerged like CLANG, RING and JINGLE.
But other ones? I’ve heard of a bell TOLLing (for thee) but KNELL? PEAL? I have no idea what those are meant to sound like. I know what a death KNELL is, like a final sound before you die, and looking it up, it’s how bells ring for a funeral in a somber way, so that makes sense. Interesting mpu
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