Looking for Wednesday’s Strands hints, spangram and answers? You can find them here:
It’s the Fourth of July, and I wondered if Strands was going to take the day off. Well, it didn’t, and instead made a Fourth of July themed puzzle instead.
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?
We will begin with the official hint from the NYT and then I will make one of my own. Their hint is:
Nation celebration
Mine is:
It’s the Fourth of the July. I mean come on. Obviously.
What Are Today’s Strands Answers?
Spoilers begin as we talk about the answers starting with the spangram and then the full list after that. The spangram is
INDEPENDENCE DAY
And that is found on the board here:
The rest of the list:
- SPARKLER
- FIREWORKS
- PICNIC
- FLAG
- PARADE
Yeah that about covers it. That is easily the longest, most winding spangram I’ve ever seen, snaking around the board. I tried INDEPENDENCE by itself first but that just gave me a piece of a hint.
This one is generally pretty easy. Obviously FIREWORKS were going to be in there. PARADE, FLAG, PICNIC, essentially zero surprises. So I guess they’re sort of giving us the day off with how easy this one was.
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