Find Your Way Through the Strands Puzzle: February 19, 2025
Welcome to your ultimate guide for tackling today’s Strands puzzle, themed “Pick Your Own Prefix.” Discover valuable clues and insights, concluding with the solution.
For daily access to our Strands hints, save this link in your bookmarks. You’ll also find previous hints there if you want to recap any past puzzles.
Below, several subtle hints for today’s Strands answers await. Further down in this article, the spangram and complete answers will be disclosed. Take your time to scroll and extract only the hints you truly need!
Clue for Today’s Spangram
A nutrient-rich fruit that often displays rich, dark hues.
Clue for the Theme Words
These are particular varieties of fruits that you might gather yourself, purchase from a grocery shop, or find at a roadside market if you’re fortunate. Keep in mind, these represent only the beginnings of the words—they connect with the spangram to complete their names.
WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!
The answers for today’s Strands challenge are about to be revealed.
What is the Spangram for Today?
The spangram today is BERRIES.
What are the Theme Words for Today?
The theme words identified today are: RASP, STRAW, BLACK, HUCKLE, SALMON, GOLDEN, ELDER, BLUE.
Below is what the completed board looks like:
Solving Today’s Strands
Are these merely common prefixes, such as “anti” or “pro”? Unlikely, as prefixes are usually two or three letters long, while it seems Strands requires a minimum of four letters.
Random words emerge, but GOLDEN in the bottom left catches my eye—it’s a certain hit. 🔵
Then, BLUE appears in the bottom right—also a definite hit. 🔵 These are both colors, yet the bigger picture remains unclear.
STRW in the upper row emerges as well. 🔵 This is rather puzzling. How do these clues tie into the theme? GOLDEN rule, STRAW poll, STRAW man? I’m not connecting the dots yet.
Words like BUCKLE, BUSK, BAKE, BAKER, EARS, CLUCK, RASCAL, LEAR, BALLER, BALL, BEAR, BARE, SHINE, REAL, and BEAK don’t seem relevant to the theme. Confusion sets in.
Hang on. RASP is indeed relevant. 🔵 Oh! These are types of berries. Unbelievable.
And there’s the spangram: BERRIES. 🟡
SALMON is situated below the spangram. 🔵 A lesser-known one to me. Check it out here.
ELDER finishes the bottom section. 🔵
BLACK sits above the spangram on the left. 🔵
Finally, HUCKLE rounds things off. 🔵
Strands #353 “Pick your own prefix” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵
Playing Strands: A Quick Guide
The Strands game can be accessed through the New York Times website or the NYT Games app.
Upon starting, a game board populated with various letters appears, accompanied by a clue hinting at the theme—often a phrase, such as “Better with age.” The challenge is to uncover words hidden within the grid that align with the theme.
A Fusion of Crossword and Word Search
The primary word to identify is the “spangram,” which provides a clearer insight into the theme. For instance, with a theme like “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED—this relates to items that improve over time. The spangram spans the entire board, either horizontally or vertically, and will be highlighted in yellow. Discovering it typically simplifies solving the remainder of the puzzle.
In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction (upwards, downwards, horizontally, and diagonally), and each letter is utilized only once. Only one correct answer exists. As you pinpoint a word correctly (like KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), that word lights up in blue.
If you encounter difficulty, you can submit any non-theme words that are four letters or longer to earn a hint. After submitting three non-theme words, the “Hint” button becomes active; clicking it will reveal the letters of a theme word. You still need to arrange these letters successfully to form the complete word. If a hint already exists on the board and a subsequent hint is used without solving the related word, that word’s letter sequence will be disclosed.
Winning in Strands
In contrast to Connections and Wordle, failing is not an option in Strands. When guesses are submitted, you’ll either successfully identify a word, gather credit for a hint, or face a shaky text indicating the submission is too brief or invalid. There are no constraints on guess submissions or time limits.
Victory is achieved when all letters on the board have been utilized correctly, signifying that the spangram and all theme words have been discovered. Similar to other NYT games, after solving the puzzle, a shareable card displays your performance with blue dots 🔵 for theme words found, a yellow dot 🟡 for the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 to denote hint-related words.
