Hints and Solutions for Strands: January 31, 2025
If you’re on the lookout for guidance and solutions for Strands on January 31, 2025, you’ve come to the right spot. The puzzle revolves around the intriguing theme of “Baby Talk.” Below, you’ll find several useful insights and finally, the answers to the challenge.
A practical way to access our daily Strands hints is to bookmark this page. You’ll also discover previous hints if you wish to catch up on past puzzles.
Presented below are some subtle clues regarding today’s Strands answers. If you venture further down this page, you will uncover the spangram and complete solutions. Take your time scrolling and extract only the hints you require!
Clue for the Spangram in Today’s Puzzle
“Sweetheart, hurry up! The little one just exclaimed ___!”
Clue for Today’s Theme Words
These are examples of utterances made by infants.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Puzzle!
What follows are the answers for today’s Strands puzzle.
What is the Spangram for Today?
The spangram featured today is FIRSTWORDS.
What are the Theme Words for Today?
The theme words are: YUCKY, MAMA, MINE, BOTTLE, DADA, KITTY, MORE, BYEBYE.
Below is how the completed board appears:
Approach to Today’s Strands
Initially, there seemed to be two potential paths: either words representing the noises babies make (such as crying or cooing) or perhaps affectionate terms one might use for a partner.
Identifying BOTTLE in the lower left corner led to the thought that these might simply be terms frequently used by people with infants.
Though I stumbled upon a few unrelated words like DAIRY and FAIRY, they didn’t fit the puzzle. Moving to the upper right, I found KITTY, leading me to think the words might truly reflect what infants say.
Suddenly, I spotted the spangram! FIRSTWORDS. This was it!
To the left of KITTY, DADA was visible. BYEBYE appeared in the bottom right. MORE adorned the rightmost edge. YUCKY was at the top left and next to it was MAMA. Finally, I located MINE.
Strands #334 "Baby Talk" 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵
Guidelines for Playing Strands
The Strands game is available on the New York Times website and through the NYT Games application.
Upon commencing gameplay, a board filled with various letters is presented alongside a clue hinting at the theme, such as a phrase like “Better with age.” Your objective is to discover the hidden words that align with the given theme.
A Blend of Crossword and Word Search
The primary challenge is locating the “spangram,” which explicitly indicates the theme of the puzzle. For instance, in the theme “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, referring to items that indeed improve over time. The spangram stretches across the game board, either horizontally or vertically. When identified, it shines in yellow, making the remaining puzzle considerably more approachable.
In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction—upward, downward, left, right, and diagonally—using each letter only once. There’s a single correct solution for each puzzle. When a valid word such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI is pinpointed, it is highlighted in blue.
For those struggling to complete the puzzle, any four-letter or longer words can be submitted for credit towards receiving a hint. Submitting three non-theme words enables the “Hint” button; clicking it will highlight letters from one of the theme words. However, users must still link these letters in the correct sequence to form the intended word. If hints are used, the sequence of that word’s letters will be revealed if another hint is requested before solving it.
Achieving Victory in Strands
Strands operates under a no-fail premise, unlike Connections or Wordle. Submissions will either yield a correct solution, contribute to hint credit, or elicit a shaking response indicating the word is either too short or invalid. There’s no limit on guesses and no timer to race against.
Victory is achieved by correctly identifying every letter on the board, encompassing the spangram and all theme words. Resembling other NYT games, upon solving the puzzle, a shareable card will display your performance, showcasing blue dots 🔵 for theme words discovered, a yellow dot 🟡 for the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 for words that received hints.
