Credit: Strands/NYT

Clue for the Spangram

Think of two terms that describe the sections and classifications found in your email accounts, like Gmail or Hotmail.

Clue for the Thematic Words

These are items you may click within those email platforms to filter your messages into specific categories.

WARNING: Answers follow!

Next, the solutions to today’s Strands puzzle will be disclosed.

What is the Spangram?

The spangram for today is EMAILLABEL.

What are the Thematic Words?

The thematic words include: INBOX, DRAFTS, TRASH, SPAM, STARRED, SENT, SNOOZED.

Here’s how the completed board appears:

Credit: Strands/NYT

Solving Today’s Strands Challenge

The first step was considering various communication forms such as letters, phone conversations, and texts.

Among the non-themed words, terms like STAR, STARS, DRAFT, STONE, TAXON, DRAMA, and SIZE appeared. However, DRAFTS was a themed word! 🔵 Is it safe to say the focus is on emailing?

Indeed, INBOX can be found at the top left! 🔵

SENT stretches along the right side. 🔵

STARRED is positioned at the top right. 🔵

A key observation is the word EMAIL slicing through the center, likely indicating the start of the spangram. The term TRASH is found climbing from the bottom. 🔵

Noting SPAM at the bottom left and SNOOZED at the bottom right. 🔵

And there it is, the spangram: EMAILLABEL. 🟡

Strands #322
“I get the message”
🔵🔵🔵🔵
🔵🔵🔵🟡

Playing Strands

The Strands game is available on the New York Times site and can be accessed through the NYT Games app.

Upon starting, a game board filled with letters and a clue about the theme—typically a phrase, like “Better with age”—will appear. The objective is to find the hidden words associated with the theme present on the board.

A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search

The primary term to locate is the “spangram,” which clearly suggests the puzzle’s theme. (For instance, a spangram linked to “Better with age” is FERMENTED, reflecting items that improve over time.) This spangram spans the entire board, either horizontally or vertically. When it’s discovered, it will be highlighted in yellow, making the rest of the puzzle considerably easier to solve.

In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal), and each letter can be used only once. There exists just one valid solution for each puzzle. Correct identification of a word (like KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI) will highlight it in blue.

Should challenges arise while solving, submitting any non-themed words of four letters or more grants hints. If three non-themed words are submitted, the “Hint” button will become clickable, revealing letters from one theme word. However, these highlighted letters must be aligned in the correct sequence to form the word. Utilizing another hint on a word already hinted will reveal the order of that word’s letters.

Winning Strands

Strands differs from other games like Connections and Wordle in that it is impossible to fail. Each guess either identifies a word correctly, earns a hint, or results in the text shaking to indicate an invalid or too short submission. There is no limit on guesses or time constraints.

Victory is achieved when all letters on the board are utilized, meaning the spangram and all thematic words have been successfully identified. Similar to other NYT games, a shareable card showing performance metrics will appear upon puzzle completion: blue dots 🔵 represent identified thematic words, the yellow dot 🟡 indicates the spangram found, and a lightbulb 💡 shows the words that received hints.