Credit: Strands/NYT

Attention: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands!

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

What is the spangram in today’s Strands?

The spangram for today is STINGERS.

What are the theme words in today’s Strands?

Today’s theme words include: SCORPION, JELLYFISH, HORNET, PLATYPUS, and BUMBLEBEE.

Check out what the completed board looks like:

Credit: Strands/NYT

Solving Today’s Strands: An Insight

Speculating on whether today’s puzzle may feature any ouch-related sound words like “oof” or “ow.”

A glance at the top reveals the word SELFISH, which doesn’t seem to fit. Initially, there was a thought that it could relate to words that provoke an “ouch” response, but SCORN also proved to be unrelated.

Upon further inspection, SELFISH turns out to be JELLYFISH. 🔵 Clearly something that could incite an “ouch!” reaction.

Similarly, it’s not SCORN, it’s actually SCORPION. 🔵 (Having encountered a scorpion personally, the “ouch” factor is real.)

Located in the bottom right corner is BUMBLEBEE. 🔵

PLATYPUS sits in the bottom left corner. 🔵 (Notably, they have venomous spurs!)

The spangram is STINGERS. 🟡

Lastly, the word HORNET appears. 🔵

Strands #352
"Ouch!"
🔵🔵🔵🔵
🟡🔵

Guide to Playing Strands

The Strands game can be accessed via the New York Times website and the NYT Games application.

Upon entering the game, you will encounter a board filled with letters, accompanied by a clue hinting at the overarching theme—this could be a phrase like “Better with age.” Your objective is to uncover the hidden words within the grid that resonate with the given theme.

A Blend of Crossword and Word Search

Identifying the “spangram” is crucial—it robustly conveys the puzzle’s theme. (For example, if the theme were “Better with age,” the spangram would be FERMENTED as it depicts items that improve over time.) The spangram will span the board either horizontally or vertically (hence its name) and will be highlighted in yellow once found. Solving this spangram usually simplifies the rest of the puzzle’s resolution.

In the Strands game, words can align in any direction (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal), and letters can only be used once. There is one definitive solution. When a correct word is identified (for instance, KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it becomes highlighted in blue.

Should difficulties arise, players can submit four-letter or longer non-theme words to earn a hint. Submitting three non-theme words unlocks the “Hint” button; clicking this will highlight all letters within one of the theme words. The letters will still need to be connected in the proper order to form that word. If a hint is already active on the board and an additional hint is requested, the letter arrangement of that word will be displayed.

Winning Strands

In contrast to games like Connections and Wordle, there’s no losing in Strands. Each guess will yield either a correct answer, hint credit, or a notification indicating an invalid or short word through text shake. Players cannot exhaust their guess limit, nor do they face a time constraint.

Victory is achieved when all letters on the board are successfully utilized, meaning both the spangram and all theme words have been discovered. Like other NYT games, upon completion, a shareable card depicting daily performance will be generated: blue dots 🔵 denote found theme words, a yellow dot 🟡 signifies the spangram discovery, and a lightbulb 💡 indicates words obtained through hints.