If you’re seeking clues and answers for the Strands puzzle dated January 7, 2025, you’ve come to the right place! This post will provide some hints, helpful strategies, and ultimately the solutions centered around the motif of “Front Women.”

For a convenient way to revisit our daily Strands hints, be sure to bookmark this page. You can also explore previous hints, which is perfect if you’re curious about past puzzles.

Below are some indirect hints for today’s Strands answers. If you prefer to reveal the spangram and full answers, scroll down gradually to take only the hints you need!

Spangram Hint for Today’s Strands Puzzle

Consider a synonym for women, which may be recognized in the phrase, “___ and gentlemen.”

Theme Words Hint for Today’s Strands Puzzle

Look for entities and concepts that initiate with the singular form of the word found in the spangram.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands Puzzle!

The answers to today’s Strands puzzle are about to be disclosed.

What is the Spangram for Today’s Strands?

The spangram for today is LADIES.

What Are the Theme Words for Today’s Strands?

The theme words featured today include: LIBERTY, BUNNY, MARMALADE, FINGER, SLIPPER, BIRD, and GAGA.

Here’s how the completed board appears:

Insights for Solving Today’s Strands

Initially, it’s helpful to contemplate notable women, especially those who have taken leading roles in music, like Stevie Nicks. Widening this idea, consider influential women leaders in general.

Words such as RAID, FILE, FLING, DRIP, and DREAM are not part of the theme.

However, LIBERTY found in the upper right corner appears to be a theme word! 🔵 Could this relate to Lady Liberty?

BUNNY, positioned to the left, might evoke thoughts of Lady Bunny, perhaps?

Down in the bottom right, we encounter BIRD. 🔵 (Lady Bird Johnson, anyone?)

And there’s the spangram: LADIES. 🟡 It seems like a focus on women’s names is evident.

MARMALADE appears in the upper left. 🔵

GAGA is located above BIRD. 🔵

The word FINGER starts at the bottom left, extending upward. 🔵

Finally, we find SLIPPER. 🔵 (Interestingly, the Pink Lady’s SLIPPER is a unique type of orchid.)

Strands #310
“Front women”
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Guide to Playing Strands

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

Upon starting, players will encounter a game board featuring various letters, complemented by a clue that hints at its thematic content—a phrase such as “Better with age.” Your task is to uncover the concealed words on the board that correlate with the theme.

A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search

The key term to locate is the “spangram,” which explicitly represents the puzzle’s theme. For instance, in a puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram would be FERMENTED, denoting items that indeed improve over time. The spangram will traverse the entire board, either horizontally or vertically. Highlighted in yellow, identifying the spangram typically simplifies the remaining puzzle.

Words in Strands can be arranged in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), with each letter used just once. There’s only one correct answer. When a word, such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI, is correctly guessed, it will appear in blue.

If the puzzle presents a challenge, players can submit non-theme words of four letters or more for a hint. Submitting three non-theme words enables the “Hint” button; this will highlight letters from one of the theme words. Although the highlighted letters must still be connected correctly to spell out the theme word, if there’s an existing hint and you request one for that word, the order of its letters will be shown.

How to Succeed in Strands

In contrast to Connections or Wordle, Strands does not allow for failure. Each guess yields either a confirmed answer, progress towards a hint, or a shake effect indicating an invalid or too-short submission. The guessing process is limitless, and no time constraints apply.

Victory is achieved when all letters on the board have been utilized, indicating identification of the spangram and all theme words. Following a successful puzzle completion, a shareable card detailing daily performance is displayed: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words found, the yellow dot 🟡 shows when the spangram was discovered, and a lightbulb 💡 signals words acquired through hints.