Clues and Answers for Strands – February 13, 2025
If you’re on the hunt for tips and clues related to the Strands puzzle for Thursday, February 13, 2025, you’re in the right place! This post will provide guiding hints and eventually reveal the solution to a puzzle themed around “It’s in the cards.”
To easily access our daily Strands hints, be sure to bookmark this page. You can also revisit our previous hints if you’re interested in what you might have missed from earlier puzzles.
Below, you’ll find some subtle hints to help you with today’s Strands answers. Keep scrolling to uncover the spangram and the complete answers. Proceed at your own pace and take only the hints you need!
Clue for the Spangram in Today’s Strands
A term used as a greeting. This word is also often combined with “card” when talking about something you might send through the post.
Insight into the Theme Words in Today’s Strands
Types of cards you might easily find in the Hallmark aisle at your local pharmacy.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands Puzzle!
The answers to today’s Strands puzzle are about to be revealed.
What is today’s spangram?
The spangram for today is GREETINGS.
What are the theme words in today’s Strands?
The theme words for today include: CONGRATS, SYMPATHY, LOVE, BIRTHDAY, WEDDING, and BABY.
Here is how the puzzle board appears once solved:
Solving Today’s Strands Challenge
The theme for today’s puzzle appears to relate to cards, possibly referring to playing or tarot cards.
The term STAR located in the top left corner did not contribute to the solution.
However, the word BABY found at the lower section is advantageous. 🔵 Interesting.
WEDDING appears adjacent to that on the right side of the board. 🔵 This could suggest that the theme involves occasions for which one might send cards to their loved ones or significant life events.
BIRTHDAY is spotted in the upper right corner, further solidifying the idea that these are types of greeting cards. 🔵
The spangram in the center of the board reads: GREETINGS. 🟡
The word CONGRATS fits into the upper left corner. 🔵
Lastly, SYMPATHY sits at the bottom left corner. 🔵
The final keyword is LOVE. 🔵
Strands #347 “It's in the cards” 🔵🔵🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵
Engaging with the Strands Game
The Strands game can be found on the New York Times website as well as via the NYT Games app.
Upon beginning the game, you will see a grid filled with various letters, accompanied by a clue hinting at the overall theme—this clue is typically a catchy phrase, such as “Better with age.” Your task is to uncover the hidden words within the grid that align with the theme of the puzzle.
A Fusion of Crosswords and Word Searches
The key word to discover is the “spangram,” which explicitly expresses the puzzle’s theme. For instance, if the theme is “Better with age,” the spangram would be FERMENTED, illustrating products that improve over time. The spangram stretches across the board from left to right or top to bottom, which gives it its name. Once you find the spangram, it will be highlighted in yellow, facilitating the solution to the puzzle.
In Strands, the letters can be arranged in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), but each letter can only be used once. There is a single correct solution for each puzzle. When correctly identifying a word (such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be marked in blue.
If you find yourself struggling to complete the puzzle, you can submit any non-theme words with four letters or more for a hint. By submitting three non-theme words, the “Hint” button will become active; clicking it will highlight the letters in one of the theme words for you. You’ll still need to connect these highlighted letters in the correct sequence to form the theme word. Should there be a hint already on the board, using another hint for that word will reveal the letter order.
Winning Strategies for Strands
Unlike games like Connections and Wordle, Strands permits continual attempts without the risk of failure. Your guesses can either correctly identify a word, earn hint credits, or shake in response, indicating that the submitted word is either too short or invalid. There is no limit on guesses and no timer to pressure you.
Victory is declared when all letters on the board have been utilized, meaning you have correctly identified both the spangram and all theme words. Similar to other NYT games, once the puzzle is solved, a shareable card will display your performance for that day: blue dots 🔵 signify theme words found, a yellow dot 🟡 indicates the spangram discovered, and a lightbulb 💡 marks words where hints were provided.
