Strands is a word search puzzle game offered by The New York Times, where players must find a group of words that have a common theme in a grid of letters. The game also includes a special word called a spangram that links the theme words. Each letter is used once in one of the theme words and the spangram, which can be found vertically, horizontally, and diagonally in the grid. Players can unlock hints by finding three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme.
The difficulty of the game varies from day to day, with some days requiring players to fill in missing words in phrases, while other days may focus on synonyms or homophones. The goal of the game is to find all the theme words and the spangram before time runs out. Today’s theme hint for Strands was “Looking for a mate” or “Missing a partner,” with nine theme words to find, including the spangram “PAIRED”. Other words in today’s puzzle included “PLIER,” “CHOPSTICK,” “MITTEN,” “BOOKEND,” “EARPLUG,” “TONG,” and “WING.”
Players can use hints to unlock letters for theme words if they get stuck, with each hint revealing the letters that make up one of the theme words. In today’s game, the player struggled with finding the word “TONG” after unlocking the letters for “WING.” However, they eventually found the spangram on their own, making it easier to spot “BOOKEND” and “EARPLUG.” After unlocking more hints for “PLIER,” the player was able to find “MITTEN” and “CHOPSTICK” with the remaining letters.
Despite using three hints in today’s game, the player remained optimistic and shared their experience with solving the puzzle. They acknowledged that they did not perform as well as they would have liked but were still satisfied with their efforts. The player also mentioned handing over the coverage of Strands to a colleague while they took a break, but expressed excitement to return to the game in a few weeks. Overall, the player encouraged others to check out Paul’s blog for hints and solutions for future Strands games.
