Strands Puzzle Hints for January 21, 2025
Seeking assistance for the Strands puzzle dated Tuesday, January 21, 2025? This guide is packed with tips and clues, culminating in the solution that centers around the theme “You don’t say …”.
For easy daily access to our Strands hints, consider bookmarking this page. This page also contains past hints, allowing you to revisit any ideas you may have missed.
What follows are subtle hints pertaining to today’s Strands answers. Be sure to scroll carefully, as the complete solution and spangram will be revealed at the end of the article, allowing you to extract only the hints you require!
Clue for Today’s Spangram
The theme touches on terms that have lost their popularity and are no longer considered ‘cool’.
Clue for Today’s Theme Words
In time, phrases such as “skibidi,” “sigma,” and even anything from this list could surface in this puzzle.
WARNING: The Following Contains Spoilers!
Answers for today’s Strands puzzle are about to be disclosed.
What is Today’s Spangram?
The spangram for today is DATEDSLANG.
What are the Theme Words for Today’s Strands?
The theme words featured today are: PHAT, BOSS, TUBULAR, CHERRY, FRESH, RADICAL, MAJOR.
Here is how the board appears once the puzzle is resolved:
Approach Taken to Solve Today’s Strands
The theme today isn’t giving away much—perhaps it’s about words associated with silence?
A few disconnected terms surface, but then MAJOR pops up in the lower left—it’s a success! 🔵 However, the connection to the theme remains elusive.
I spot CHERRY in the upper right; it too is valid. 🔵 Interesting!
Non-theme words like PASTAS, BLUB, and ALIGN also show up.
As a last resort, I attempt PHAT, and it’s successful. 🔵 Could it be that we are exploring slang words linked to disbelief or things considered cool?
BOSS sits to the right of PHAT. 🔵
TUBULAR lies underneath CHERRY. 🔵
Now it makes sense: “You don’t say” indicates that these are indeed outdated slang words—phrases that have fallen out of use.
Thus, the spangram is revealed: DATEDSLANG. 🟡
RADICAL appears near the bottom. 🔵
FRESH is the final term found. 🔵
Strands #324 “You don't say ...” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵
Guide to Playing Strands
The Strands game can be accessed through the New York Times website or the NYT Games app.
Upon starting, a game board with a variety of letters will appear, accompanied by a clue hinting at the board’s theme, presented as a phrase such as “Better with age.” Your task is to find the concealed words in the grid that align with the theme.
A Blend of Crossword and Word Search
The essential term to identify is the “spangram,” a word that directly reflects the puzzle’s theme. (For instance, for a puzzle themed “Better with age,” the spangram is FERMENTED, signifying items that improve over time.) The spangram will spread across the game board horizontally or vertically. Finding it will typically simplify the remaining puzzle considerably.
In Strands, words can be arranged in any direction (upward, downward, horizontally, or diagonally), with each letter used only once. There is just one correct solution. Upon correctly identifying a word (e.g., KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be highlighted in blue.
If you find yourself stuck, you may submit non-theme words of four letters or more to earn a hint. By submitting three non-theme words, the “Hint” feature becomes available, highlighting letters from one of the theme words. You must then arrange these highlighted letters in the appropriate order to form a theme word. If a hint is already on the board and you choose another hint, that word’s letter sequence will be revealed.
Winning Strands
Unlike other games such as Connections or Wordle, Strands cannot be lost. Submissions yield either correct answers, hint credits, or a shake indicating that the entered word is too short or invalid. There are no limited guesses nor a time constraint.
A win occurs when all letters on the board are successfully used, signifying the identification of both the spangram and all theme words. Upon solving, a shareable performance card will display your results, indicating found theme words with blue dots 🔵, the spangram with a yellow dot 🟡, and hint-sourced words with a lightbulb 💡.
