Strands Puzzle Hints and Solutions for April 13, 2025
Searching for tips and solutions for the Strands puzzle dated April 13, 2025? You’ve arrived at the right place! This post delves into hints, strategies, and ultimately reveals the answers tied to the theme “Orange door hinge.”
To easily revisit our daily hints for Strands, bookmark this page. You’ll also find previous suggestions here, making it convenient to catch up on any puzzles you might have missed.
In the sections that follow, a collection of subtle hints regarding today’s Strands answers will be shared. As you scroll, further down, you’ll uncover the spangram and the corresponding answers. Proceed carefully, taking only the hints you find necessary!
Clue for the Spangram in Today’s Strands Puzzle
Consider “orange” as one half of a pair and “door hinge” as its counterpart. When combined, they have a similar sound. The spangram reflects this poetic relationship between a color and another term. (It’s challenging to hint at this without referencing one of the spangram’s words!)
Clue for the Theme Words in Today’s Strands Puzzle
These words resemble colors you might discover in a box of crayons.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands Puzzle!
This section contains the answers to today’s Strands puzzle.
What is the Spangram in Today’s Strands?
Today’s spangram is COLORRHYMES.
What are the Theme Words in Today’s Strands?
The theme words are: HELLO, QUEEN, SPREAD, HEIGHT, FLEW, PLAQUE, PILOT.
Here’s the completed board for reference:
Approach to Solving Today’s Strands
What an unusual theme for a puzzle! While its intent is unclear, the fact that “orange door hinge” has a loose rhyme stands out. It’s crucial to consider that “orange” is famously a word without a perfect rhyme, akin to “month” or “purple.”
Notably, the word RHYMES is positioned near the lower section of the puzzle, indicating it could be part of the spangram.
Upon highlighting RHYMES, it’s evident that PILOT occupies the bottom left corner. Could that be another word lacking a rhyme? It’s possible!
Just above PILOT is PLAQUE. This particular word certainly has its share of rhymes: tack, smack, lack, and so on. However, does a rhyme require identical spellings? It’s a topic worthy of consideration.
The word COLOR appears above PLAQUE — this likely serves as our spangram: COLORRHYMES! 🟡 Yes! Now it’s clear that PLAQUE rhymes with “black” and PILOT rhymes with “violet.”
QUEEN is situated above the start of the spangram, making it a prime candidate. 🔵 (It rhymes with “green.”)
HELLO is directly above QUEEN. 🔵 (It rhymes with “yellow.”)
FLEW is located at the end of the spangram. 🔵 (It rhymes with “blue.”)
HEIGHT is found along the far right edge. 🔵 (It rhymes with “white.”)
Lastly, SPREAD completes the list. 🔵 (It rhymes with “red.”)
Strands #406 “Orange door hinge” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵
Engaging with Strands
The Strands game can be accessed through the New York Times website and via the NYT Games app.
Upon starting, a board filled with letters is presented, along with a clue suggesting the theme — usually in the form of a phrase like “Better with age.” Players are tasked with identifying hidden words correlating to the theme.
A Blend of Crossword and Word Search
The primary term to uncover is the “spangram,” which encapsulates the essence of the puzzle’s theme. For example, the spangram for “Better with age” is FERMENTED, as it signifies items that improve over time. The spangram will stretch across the board either horizontally or vertically. Once located, it gets highlighted in yellow, simplifying the resolution of the puzzle.
In Strands, words can be aligned in various directions (up, down, left, right, or diagonal), and each letter can only be used once. There is a definitive solution to the puzzle. Successfully identifying a word (such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI) will highlight it in blue.
Should difficulties arise while solving, submitting any non-theme words—provided they are at least four letters long—grants access to a hint. If three non-theme words are submitted, the “Hint” button will become actionable; clicking it highlights letters belonging to one theme word. This requires players to connect the highlighted letters correctly to construct the theme word. If a hint has already been applied to the board and a subsequent hint is utilized for that word, the letter sequence will be revealed.
Winning Strands
Unlike games such as Connections or Wordle, it isn’t possible to lose in Strands. When guesses are made, there are three outcomes: a correct identification, a hint credit, or a shakily rejected entry if it’s too brief or invalid. There are no limits on guesses, nor is there a time constraint.
A win is achieved upon correctly using all letters on the board, including discovering both the spangram and all theme words. Similar to other NYT games, upon completing the puzzle, a shareable card will display performance: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words identified, a yellow dot 🟡 signifies the spangram’s discovery, and a lightbulb 💡 marks any hints utilized.
