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Have you ever thought word puzzles are like a quest for hidden treasures? Strands delivers that experience from NYT. With each day comes a new challenge: players are required to hunt down matching words to a theme. However, that’s not all, there’s a spangram to resolve— a word that spans the grid, and captures the day’s theme. The world of bipedal animals brings us the creatures of today’s puzzle, a themed puzzle. Now let’s see how we can solve the clues while finding hints and answers to complete today’s Strands puzzle!
Today’s theme? “We’re walking.” However, don’t think of four-legged beasts; it’s about those with two legs. This makes today’s hunt, which are hints of bipedal beings, a bit easier.
Here’s a breakdown of today’s hints:
Hint #1: Not on all fours
Hint #2: Freedom of free limbs to open doors and do other activities
However, these clues tend toward animals and beings that walk upright. The grid starts with a few crucial letters from each word to help these players have a starting point.
To guide players, here are the initial two letters of each word in today’s grid:
HU
ME
OS
KA
PA
GI
BI
These clues provide some classic bipedal animals and a great Spangram, one word spilling over from one side of the grid to the other and extending the theme.
Today’s spangram is ‘BIPEDAL.’ This word completes the entire puzzle, by allowing us to see how all those words in the grid are similar. Let’s take a look at the complete list of words in today’s puzzle:
HUMAN – The most advanced biped
MEERKAT – Offers the ability to stand on two legs to look for predators
The tallest and heaviest bird, but also the only one that contrives to use two legs
BIPED – Famous kangaroo that shoppes as its main form of movement
PANGOLIN – A creature with armour sometimes walks like a biped
GIBBON – Known for its upright stance and ability to swing from tree to tree
To solve yesterday’s Strands felt like a gent stroll through a zoo of amazing bipedal creatures. From the ‘abvious’ ‘HUMAN’ and ‘MEERKAT’ each succeeding clue revealed more and more species. Today’s puzzle had an anchor in the spangram “BIPEDAL,” meaning that there was a trait that the creatures shared, and players were sent searching for the creatures that walk or stand on two legs.
Today’s Strands puzzle featured a pleasant range of animals that live in different environments. The largest animals here come in all shapes and sizes, from deserts to forests, but all have one thing in common: bipedalism. Today’s theme was a treat for anyone interested in natural history or just a fan of word games.
Let’s briefly explore the bipedal creatures featured in today’s Strands:
Human: Humans are the most familiar bipeds; defined as walking upright. This is an evolved trait that makes humans special in the animal kingdom in that we can tool, do complex gestures, and interact.
Meerkat: Meerkats are famous for poking their heads up to see the land and investigating for predators, and use two legs to stand up on to do so.
Ostrich: The powerful legs that let it run--it is, after all, flightless--give him two legs and let him reach impressive speeds.
Kangaroo: The kangaroo’s bipedal hopping has made it famous for its hopping movement; a method used to travel large distances over relatively flat ground, over any sort of obstacle that an animal of the same size would find challenging.
Pangolin: Insect forager, the pangolin is an unusual creature with armour-like scales and, on occasion, does a bipedal stance.
Gibbon: Although most of them are arboreal, gibbons can stand upright on two legs, and show particularly elaborate agility when moving about branches.
This versatility of bipedal movement is shown in each of these animals, whether for running, hopping or scanning the environment. Today’s Strands is a bit of a fun skew on the selection as it invites players to consider this diversity within a ‘bipedal’ species.
The Strands puzzle of today was great, it gave a very interesting theme and used a very creative animals set. Each answer was also a reminder that every living thing is capable of shifting its mood from 4 legs to 2 to allow their bipedal movement.
The central word of the spangram, “BIPEDAL”, was also a good idea, leading players to imagine creatures with two-legged powers. Tomorrow promises a new grid, a new theme, and perhaps another spangram that will bring the day’s puzzle to life. Until then, enjoy the satisfaction of today’s solved puzzle and prepare for whatever theme awaits next in the NYT Strands!
