For those seeking clues and solutions for the Strands challenge dated February 20, 2025, you’ve come to the right place. This edition, themed “Together for the present,” will be dissected with helpful hints and ultimately lead to answers.

To facilitate easy access to daily clues about Strands, consider bookmarking this page. Previous hints are also archived here for anyone interested in catching up on past puzzles.

Below, some subtle hints regarding today’s Strands answers will be provided. Further down, the spangram and complete answers will be disclosed. Take your time and collect just the clues you find useful!

Credit: Strands/NYT

Spangram Hint for Today’s Strands

Consider what couples typically commemorate annually (ideally).

Theme Words Hint for Today’s Strands

Significant anniversaries and their customary gifts.

CAUTION: Spoilers Ahead for Today’s Strands

We’re about to reveal the solutions for today’s Strands puzzle.

Today’s Spangram

The spangram for today’s puzzle is ANNIVERSARY.

Theme Words for Today’s Strands

The words that form the theme today are: FIRST, FIFTIETH, SIXTIETH, PAPER, GOLD, DIAMOND.

Completed Puzzle Board

Credit: Strands/NYT

Deciphering Today’s Strands

The theme evokes images of a family celebrating around a Christmas tree, eagerly anticipating the gifts. However, Strands tends to stay focused on seasonal intricacies. Let’s explore the connections.

Words like MOVE, OVEN, STRIFE, SAFE, SAFER, EXIST, EXIT, and HAND are outside the theme.

Eventually, the first successful finding is GOLD. 🔵

PAPER comes right next to it. 🔵 This could relate to Lunar New Year traditions or perhaps the annual gift themes associated with anniversaries.

Indeed, it’s the latter as ANNIVERSARY emerges as the spangram from bottom to top. 🟡

DIAMOND aligns with the right side of the spangram. 🔵

SIXTIETH is located in the left section of the puzzle after some searching. 🔵

FIFTIETH is found right below it. 🔵

Finally, FIRST rounds out the group. 🔵 Notably, FIRST, FIFTIETH, and SIXTIETH correspond to the gifts of PAPER, GOLD, and DIAMOND for those milestones.

Playing Strands

Strands can be played on the New York Times website and within the NYT Games application.

Upon starting the game, players will encounter a board filled with letters and a clue suggesting the theme—a phrase such as “Better with age.” The goal is to unearth the words hidden in the board that align with this theme.

A Combination of Crossword and Word Search

The ultimate word to discover is the “spangram,” which represents the puzzle’s theme more explicitly. For instance, in the puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, as it pertains to products that improve over time. The spangram spans the entire board from left to right or top to bottom, as the name implies. Identifying the spangram typically simplifies solving the rest of the puzzle significantly.

In Strands, words may go in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonally), and each letter is only used once. There’s only one solution for the puzzle. When a word is accurately guessed, such as KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI, it will be marked in blue.

If challenges arise while solving, players can submit any non-theme words (minimum of four letters) to earn credit for hints. Submitting three non-theme words activates the “Hint” button; clicking it will highlight all letters of one theme word. The player must then connect these highlighted letters in the correct order to form the respective word. If a hint has been already provided on the board and another is used, the order of letters for that word will be revealed.

Achieving Victory in Strands

Unlike other games such as Connections or Wordle, Strands does not have a failure condition. Submissions may correctly identify an answer, earn hint credits, or shake the text, indicating a submission that is too short or invalid. There’s no limit to the number of guesses available, nor is there a time constraint.

Victory is achieved when all letters on the board are correctly utilized, thus identifying the spangram and all of the theme words. Similar to other NYT games, after completing the puzzle, players receive a shareable card detailing their daily performance: blue dots 🔵 denote theme words found, the yellow dot 🟡 represents the spangram identification, and the lightbulb 💡 signifies words for which hints were received.