Insights and Solutions for Strands – March 23, 2025
Searching for some clues and insights regarding the Strands puzzle for March 23, 2025? You’ve come to the right place! This post will provide hints as well as the ultimate solution for today’s puzzle, which has the theme “In stitches.”
To easily access our daily Strands hints, consider bookmarking this link. You can also explore previous hints you may have missed for past puzzles there.
What follows are some subtle suggestions regarding the answers for today’s Strands challenge. Further down this post, the spangram and answers will be disclosed, so proceed carefully and take only the hints you find necessary!
Clue for Today’s Spangram
A term associated with craftwork that typically involves yarn and a long pointed tool.
Suggestions for Theme Words
Particular categories or applications of this artistic technique.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
The solutions for today’s Strands puzzle are revealed below.
Today’s Spangram
The spangram featured today is NEEDLEWORK.
Theme Words for Today
Today’s theme words include: CROCHET, PATCH, MEND, DARN, EMBROIDER, KNIT, BASTE.
Here is how the board appears once the puzzle is complete:
Approach to Solving Today’s Strands
Given that yesterday featured a puzzle focused on humor, it’s unlikely that today’s topic will be the same. Instead, it may have a more medical theme, or perhaps a focus on crafting.
Words like HEAL and HEALED catch the eye, though they aren’t related to the current theme.
CROCHET stands out prominently in the upper left area of the board. 🔵 That clarifies that it’s not about medical stitches but rather stitches related to handicrafts.
The spangram comes into play: NEEDLEWORK. 🟡
Beneath CROCHET, the word PATCH is found. 🔵
MEND is located directly below PATCH. 🔵
DARN rounds out the left section. 🔵
In the center of the right side, KNIT is present. 🔵
BASTE is situated directly below KNIT. 🔵
Finally, EMBROIDER makes its appearance. 🔵
Strands #385 “In stitches” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵
How to Engage with Strands
The Strands game is available on the New York Times website and through the NYT Games app.
Upon starting the game, a grid filled with various letters will be displayed along with a hint indicating the theme—this might be a phrase like “Better with age.” Your task is to uncover the embedded words that correspond to the puzzle’s theme.
A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search
The key word to identify is the “spangram,” a term that more explicitly reveals the puzzle’s theme. (For instance, in the puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED since it signifies items that improve over time.) This spangram will stretch across the board either horizontally or vertically. After spotting the spangram, it will light up in yellow, usually simplifying the remaining puzzle.
In Strands, words can appear in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), and each letter may only be used once. Only one correct answer exists. Once a word (like KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI) is identified correctly, it will be highlighted in blue.
If the puzzle proves challenging, any non-theme word with four letters or more can be submitted to earn a single hint. By submitting three non-theme words, the “Hint” button becomes active; clicking it will highlight a letter from one of the theme words. Order must still be followed to link the highlighted letters to form a specific word. If there’s already a hint on the board, utilizing another hint will reveal the letter order for that word.
Achieving Success in Strands
Unlike other games such as Connections and Wordle, Strands does not have a failure mechanic. Every guess submitted will either identify a correct answer, grant credit for a hint, or result in a shake to indicate an invalid or insufficient submission. There are no constraints on guesses nor is there a time limit to race against.
You achieve victory once all letters on the board have been utilized, which indicates identifying the spangram and all associated theme words. Similar to other NYT games, once the puzzle is solved, a shareable card summarizing daily performance will be displayed: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words successfully identified, the yellow dot 🟡 signifies when the spangram was found, and a lightbulb 💡 indicates words requiring hints.
