Hints and Solutions for Strands – February 5, 2025
For enthusiasts eager to tackle today’s Strands puzzle, themed “What’s your reaction?”, this guide will provide valuable hints, tips, and ultimately, the full answers.
To easily revisit our daily advice for Strands, consider bookmarking this page. Previous hints can also be accessed here if you’re curious about older puzzles you may have missed.
Below, you’ll find subtle hints aimed at assisting with today’s Strands puzzle answers. Further down, the complete spangram and answers will be disclosed, so proceed at your own pace and grab just the clues you require!
Clue for Today’s Spangram
The “reaction” in this puzzle’s title points to physical responses triggered by certain substances or irritants. Can you think of a term that refers to items causing such reactions?
Clue for Today’s Theme Words
If you have sensitivities, interacting with these substances might necessitate taking an antihistamine, but it’s usually advisable to steer clear of them entirely.
WARNING: The following section contains spoilers for today’s Strands puzzle!
The answers for today’s Strands puzzle will now be revealed.
What is the spangram for today?
The spangram is ALLERGENS.
What are the theme words for today’s Strands?
The theme words featured today are: LATEX, DANDER, DUST, POLLEN, FRAGRANCE, MOLD, and SMOKE.
Take a look at what the completed puzzle board looks like:
Approach to Solving Today’s Strands
The initial thought upon seeing the puzzle’s theme is often reactions from texts or social networks, which include responses like “like,” “laugh,” and various emoji reactions. However, certainty regarding this idea is yet to come.
Noticing “LATE” positioned at the top left corner does not yield a match, but “LATEX” certainly stands out. This indicates that the puzzle revolves around substances that could trigger an allergic response.
“POLLEN” appears distinctly in the bottom left corner.
Today’s spangram “ALLERGENS” neatly fills the central area of the puzzle.
Strands #339 “What's your reaction?” 🔵🔵🟡🔵 🔵🔵🔵🔵
Understanding How to Play Strands
The Strands game is available on the New York Times website as well as the NYT Games app.
Upon starting the game, you will encounter a board filled with a random assortment of letters alongside a clue that hints at the thematic concept of the board—phrases like “Better with age” provide this inspiration. The objective is to uncover the hidden words within the letter array that relate to the puzzle’s theme.
A blend of crossword and word search
The pivotal word to seek out is the “spangram,” which directly describes the theme of the puzzle. For instance, in the case of “Better with age,” the spangram “FERMENTED” illustrates products that, naturally, improve over time. The spangram will stretch across the game board from left to right or top to bottom, indicating its significance in solving the puzzle. Identifying the spangram often simplifies the remaining puzzle considerably.
In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction—upward, downward, horizontally, or diagonally—and each letter is utilized only once throughout the gameplay. There exists only one valid solution. Should you successfully pinpoint one of the puzzle’s words (for example, KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be highlighted in blue.
If you encounter challenges while solving, you can submit any non-theme words of four letters or more to receive an opportunity for a hint. By submitting three non-theme words, the “Hint” button becomes clickable, allowing you to highlight one of the theme word’s letters. However, you will still need to arrange these highlighted letters correctly to create a theme word. If a hint has already been utilized on the board and you get another one prior to solving that word, the letter arrangement for that word will be exposed.
Winning Strands
Unlike other games like Connections and Wordle, Strands does not pose a risk of failure. Upon guessing, you will either correctly identify an answer, earn credit towards hints, or see the text shake, indicating your submitted word is invalid or too short. There is no limit to guesses and no time constraints.
Victory is attained when you have successfully utilized all letters on the board, meaning you’ve identified both the spangram and all corresponding theme words. Following completion, a shareable card will emerge that showcases your performance for the day: blue dots 🔵 represent theme words found, the yellow dot 🟡 indicates discovery of the spangram, and a lightbulb 💡 signifies words where hints were utilized.
