Strands Puzzle Clues and Solutions for January 20, 2025
If you are seeking guidance and answers for the Strands puzzle on Monday, January 20, 2025, you’ve come to the right place. Here, insights along with tips will be provided, culminating in the solution centered around the theme “Curiouser and curiouser!”
For straightforward access to daily hints for Strands, consider bookmarking this page. Past hints are also available, making it easy to catch up on prior puzzles you may have missed.
What follows are some indirect hints for today’s Strands answers, and further down, the complete spangram and answers will be unveiled. Take your time to scroll and just grab the hints you need!
Hint for the Spangram
A location where Alice arrived after her fall down the rabbit hole.
Hint for the Theme Words
Elements and characters from the tale of Alice.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
Now, the solutions for today’s Strands puzzle will be disclosed.
Today’s Spangram
The spangram for today is WONDERLAND.
Today’s Theme Words
The theme words today are: HATTER, RABBIT, CATERPILLAR, CROQUET, DORMOUSE.
Below is what the board looks like once the puzzle is completed:
Approach to Solving Today’s Strands
The expression “Curiouser and curiouser!” originates from Alice in Wonderland, which suggests a focus on elements and characters from the story.
ALICE is observable cutting through the center, yet it does not appear to link with anything at the moment.
CATERPILLAR is positioned along the left border of the board. 🔵
This narrows down the letters previously utilized for spelling ALICE, so further exploration is necessary. There it is: WONDERLAND centrally positioned, and it serves as the spangram. 🟡
RABBIT lies to the left of the spangram. 🔵
HATTER appears in the upper left section. 🔵
Initially, the “QU” seemed to form QUEEN, but it’s actually a part of CROQUET in the upper right area. 🔵
Lastly, DORMOUSE can be spotted. 🔵
Strands #323 “Curiouser and curiouser!” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵
Understanding How to Play Strands
The Strands game can be accessed via the New York Times website or the NYT Games app.
Upon entering, a game board with various letters will be visible, alongside a clue pointing to the thematic essence of the board—expressed as a phrase like “Better with age.” The objective is to uncover words embedded within the board that resonate with the theme of the puzzle.
A Unique Hybrid of Crossword and Word Search
The standout word to locate is the “spangram,” which succinctly signifies the puzzle’s theme. For instance, in a puzzle focusing on “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, indicating items that indeed improve over time. The spangram will span the length of the board horizontally or vertically. Once identified, it will be highlighted in yellow, often simplifying the remainder of the puzzle.
Within Strands, words can be oriented in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), and each letter is used only once. A singular correct solution exists for every puzzle. When a word is accurately recognized (for example, KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be marked in blue.
For those finding the puzzle challenging, submitting non-theme words of four letters or more will earn hints. If three such words are identified, the “Hint” button becomes active, allowing for the highlighting of letters from one theme word. However, these must still be organized correctly to form that word. If a hint has already been revealed and another request is made without solving that word, its letter sequence will be disclosed.
Winning the Strands Game
Contrary to Connections and Wordle, failure is not an option in Strands. When making submissions, each guess will either yield a correct response, contribute towards a hint, or trigger a shake indicating an invalid or too-short word. There is no limit to the number of attempts, nor is there a time constraint.
Victory is achieved when all letters on the board have been correctly identified. This requires uncovering both the spangram and all theme words. Similar to other NYT games, concluding the puzzle will present a shareable card reflecting daily performance: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words achieved, the yellow dot 🟡 marks the spangram discovery, and a lightbulb 💡 denotes words acquired through hints.
