happy birthday Strand! The game in New York Times Stand is like words you’re not given a list of words you should find, celebrating its 365th puzzle on Monday and marking the anniversary of the year with a strand-themed puzzle on Tuesday. (It’s past the spoilers, so if you haven’t solved today’s puzzle yet, look away.)
read more: Daily Puzzle Answers for Strands, Words, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Mini Crosswords
The puzzle proudly promotes “It’s Our Game – Oisari” as the puzzle theme, but players may be surprised when they discover that the theme does not contain words such as “puzzle”, “words”, “celebration”, or “anniversary”. Instead, all answers that mean words players must find are synonymous with word strands.
read more: In addition to the rules explained, daily NYT Strand puzzle tips
In addition to the words curl, wisp, string, ribbon, thread, tendrill, and filament, players must find the word spangram, which ranges from one side of the puzzle to the other. And of course, from curls to filaments, all these words are another way to define the game title, Strands. (I admitted that I didn’t connect at first, and thought that was just a hairstyle theme. Ahhhh!)
My best tips for solving strands
I’ve been playing Strands almost since it was released, and I’ve developed some solid strategies. These are my three favorites.
clue
For more clues, add “s” or other variants to see if you can tweak the words you already found. And if you find a word like will, see if other letters can help you lurk or create an invoice.
Find related topics
Once you’ve got one theme word, look at the puzzle and see if you can find other related words.
Here’s how to spell the theme word:
If you are given the thematic word letters but you can’t understand them, then guess three more clue words and the puzzle will light each letter in order and reveal the word.
The most demanding recent strand puzzles
Here are some of the Strand topics I’ve found to be the toughest in recent weeks.
#1: Slang on January 21st. Maybe they didn’t even use this terminology when they were cool. The harshest word: Fat.
#2: She blows! January 15th. I think marine biologists might ace this. The harshest words: Baleen or right.
#3: January 9th, off from the hook. Like the puzzle on January 15th, it helps you learn a lot about sea creatures. Sorry, Charlie. The most harsh words: Bigeey or Skipjack
