Credit: Strands/NYT

Spangram Hint for Today’s Puzzle

Think of a ring-shaped food that often pairs well with cream cheese.

Hints for Theme Words

Consider various flavors and types associated with the food mentioned in the spangram.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle are about to be revealed.

Today’s Spangram

The spangram for today is BAGELS.

Today’s Theme Words

The words related to the theme are: BLUEBERRY, PLAIN, EVERYTHING, SESAME, RAISIN, and GARLIC.

Here’s how the completed board appears:

Credit: Strands/NYT

Solving Today’s Strands Puzzle

This puzzle likely features food items known for their holes, akin to donuts and Swiss cheese.

Some non-themed terms include SEVEN, EVEN, VERY, BLUE, BEER, REBEL, PLAN, and BAGEL. BAGEL creates curiosity—could it serve as part of the spangram?

Ah, PLAIN situated in the upper right corner is a match. 🔵 Perhaps we’re looking at different varieties of bagels.

Everything stands proudly at the center. 🔵

BLUEBERRY can be found in the upper left corner. 🔵

BAGELS, the spangram, appears across the board. 🟡 (Interestingly, its placement differs from where BAGEL was previously.)

GARLIC rests in the bottom right. 🔵

RAISIN is nestled just below BAGELS. 🔵

Finally, SESAME completes the list. 🔵

Strands #316
“Hole foods”
🔵🔵🔵🟡
🔵🔵🔵

Playing Strands Successfully

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

Upon starting, a game board filled with letters will greet you alongside a clue hinting at the board’s underlying theme—usually a catchy phrase, like “Better with age.” Your task is to identify the concealed words that relate to this theme.

A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search

The primary objective is to locate the “spangram,” which offers a clear representation of the puzzle’s theme. For instance, in a puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, as it refers to products that improve over time. The spangram spans the entire board, either horizontally or vertically. Identifying the spangram simplifies the remaining puzzle considerably.

In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally), and each letter can only be used once for a single answer. There is exactly one solution for the puzzle. Identifying words such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI will highlight them in blue.

Should you encounter difficulties, you may submit any valid non-theme words (four letters or longer) to earn hints. Submitting three non-theme words will activate the “Hint” button, which when clicked, highlights the letters in one of the theme words. You must then connect these letters in the correct order to discover the theme word. If you have already obtained a hint and then utilize another hint on the same word, it will reveal the order of that word’s letters.

Winning Strategies for Strands

Unlike games such as Connections and Wordle, Strands cannot result in a loss. Each guess will either pinpoint a correct answer, provide hint credit, or trigger a shake response, indicating the word was too short or invalid. There’s no restriction on the number of guesses, and no time constraints.

A victory is achieved once all letters on the board have been utilized, meaning that both the spangram and theme words have been successfully identified. Similar to other NYT games, upon completion, a shareable card showcasing your performance will be displayed: blue dots (🔵) for the found theme words, a yellow dot (🟡) for the spangram when discovered, and a lightbulb (💡) indicating words obtained from hints.