Hints and Solutions for Strands – April 24, 2025
Searching for tips and solutions for the Strands puzzle dated April 24, 2025? You’re in the right place! This post will present various clues and ultimately reveal the solution to today’s challenge, which is themed around “Coarse Material.”
To conveniently revisit these hints each day, consider bookmarking this page. Previous hints can also be found here, so you can catch up on missed puzzles as well.
Below, you’ll find some indirect suggestions for today’s Strands puzzle answers. Scroll down for the spangram and answer reveal, and only take the hints you find necessary!
Spangram Hint for Today’s Strands Puzzle
The spangram for today includes synonyms that relate to both keywords of the theme. (Remember: think about synonyms for “coarse”—not “course,” and a word related to “material.”)
Theme Words Hint for Today’s Strands Puzzle
Think of items and materials that possess a coarse or scratchy quality.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands Puzzle!
The solutions for today’s Strands puzzle are about to be disclosed.
Today’s Spangram
The spangram for today is ROUGHSTUFF.
Today’s Theme Words
The theme words for today include: SACKCLOTH, SANDPAPER, BARK, LOOFAH, PUMICE, ROPE.
Here is what the board looks like once the puzzle is completed:
Solving Today’s Strands
It appears today’s challenge will encompass materials that feel coarse to the touch.
CLOTH is visible in the upper left corner, but it does not align with the theme.
BARK appears in the upper right corner, and it’s definitely a hit! 🔵 Likely referring to tree bark.
Although PAPER isn’t a theme word, SANDPAPER certainly is! 🔵
The spangram comes to light: ROUGHSTUFF. 🟡
On closer inspection, CLOTH forms part of SACKCLOTH, which is akin to burlap, if I’m not mistaken.
Interestingly, LOOFAH sits beneath BARK. 🔵
Lastly, ROPE appears as well. 🔵
Strands #416 “Coarse material” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵
Playing Strands
The Strands game is available on the New York Times website and through the NYT Games app.
Upon starting the game, you’ll encounter a board filled with letters alongside a clue that hints at the overall theme, such as “Better with age.” Your task is to discover the hidden words that correspond to this theme within the letter grid.
A Blend of Crossword and Word Search
The most crucial word to locate is the “spangram,” which explicitly correlates with the puzzle’s theme. (For instance, for a theme involving “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, which characterizes items that improve over time.) The spangram spans the entire board, either horizontally or vertically, and will be highlighted in yellow once found. Identifying the spangram simplifies the process of completing the rest of the puzzle.
In Strands, words may be arranged in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), and each letter can be used only once. There’s a singular correct answer for each puzzle. When correctly identifying a word, like KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI, it will be highlighted in blue.
For those facing challenges, any non-theme words of four letters or more encountered can be submitted to earn hints. Submitting three such words activates the “Hint” option; clicking it will highlight letters from one of the theme words. However, it’s necessary to link the highlighted letters sequentially to form a theme word. Using an additional hint on an already highlighted word reveals its letter order.
Winning Strands
Unlike games such as Connections and Wordle, Strands has no fail state. When guesses are submitted, responses will either confirm an answer, award hint credits, or shake the text if the entry is too short or invalid. There is no cap on guesses, and no timer to beat.
A win occurs when all letters on the board have been utilized, meaning both the spangram and all theme words have been identified. Similar to other NYT games, upon completion of the puzzle, a shareable card detailing your daily performance is generated: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words found, the yellow dot 🟡 designates the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 indicates words for which hints were received.
