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Enjoy your Day’s NYT Strands puzzle. It may not be as popular as the New York Times puzzles, Wordle or Connections, but Strands is getting fans by the lariat thanks to its hard format and exciting play. Strands is a new take on word puzzles, bringing fresh thinking into the genre and gaining traction among puzzle enthusiasts everywhere, recently launched in the New York Times Games app.
There are daily topics given, and players have to find theme words. In this, players pick words in a sequence out of words on the board, pulling and/or clicking letters to build theme words. If the theme word fits in the puzzle’s theme, it lights up blue and stays highlighted to tell the user of its exact importance in the puzzle.
Further hints are the addition of more words that have at least 4 letters. A theme word is a hunt word that is slowly solved (or revealed) as every 3 hint words show (reveal to?) more letters of the same theme word so that it's easier to figure out. However, if that’s the goal as well, using these constantly available hint words can be a strategic advantage for a player looking to find and crack the day’s theme quickly.
The "spangram," a word that spans the grid, is also introduced by Strands. As this spangram is often the embodiment of the theme for the day, it consists in playing with every letter on the board. Playing the games successfully means that you’ve uncovered both theme words and the spangram, because then you experience a very cool sense of accomplishment.
The theme for today’s Strands puzzle is Building Blocks. In this broad topic, there could be words being brought up in architecture, construction, or even abstract words of creation and assembly. If that doesn’t help, here’s a more specific clue: Structures, and materials of other kinds.
Players have to find words of four or more letters on the board to reveal more theme words. Here are some helpful words that can be used to unlock in-game hints:
BASE, STONE, SPAN, STAGE, LINE, GRIT, POST, PILE, BRACE, ROOF, TIER, STAY, BIND, GRIP, and ROCK.
The letters in the theme words will slowly appear when reading these words or any other 4 letter word. Typically, it requires three hint words before you can find all of a theme word, and collecting a couple of those can help point players towards finding the whole puzzle.
The content is connected to today’s theme words, which are building blocks. These non-spangram answers align with the day’s topic:
COLUMN, BRICK, STEEL, BEAM, MORTAR, and FRAME.
Each term has an important contribution to make to the concept building or supporting structures, our ‘Building Blocks’ theme.
Today’s spangram contains the whole grid, and the theme of the day is about structure. The word occupies a whole row beginning from the first row till they fill the puzzle. As a theme word using every letter on the board, it also reinforces the day's concentration on the building block of construction and assembly.
Strands puzzles are of varying difficulty, and there is a new theme every day. Here are a few tips to make progress:
Focus on the Theme: The topics for each day are guiding ideas that you can prepare for it. The theme words and the words related to it help us discover other various words since they are aligned with the theme terms.
Use Hint Words Strategically: Directly on board, some words may make no sense at first, but equally register as hints. If you get stuck, aim to find any three hint words that will tell you letters in theme words to get you moving.
Look for the Spangram: Key letters are common in spangrams, which are usually long words.
Sometimes it’s even just partial guesses enough to recognize that full spangram word.
Practice Pattern Recognition: Learning letter groupings can help you quickly identify patterns which can turn into words. So with trickier themes, familiarity with common English letter sequences can be useful.
NYT Strands takes the daily puzzles to the next level, asking readers to think not only outside the box but also invent their own boxes. On Nov 06, with its theme, “Building Blocks,” players need to find words related to construction and assembly. Students can enjoy a satisfying mentally challenging puzzle by uncovering hint words, theme words, and the ultimate spangram “STRUCTURE.”
Strands remains popular, energized by New York Times puzzle fans who are solving the puzzle alone, or even sharing hints with friends. Strands is fresh and thought-provoking and, as every day is a different theme, you never know what to expect.
