The newest simple brain game from The New York Times is Strands, which feels like a mix of a traditional word search and a topic-focused puzzle like Connections. If you need help getting used to the new game or want some extra hints to help you solve the March 29 puzzle, we're here to offer as much or as little help as needed.
How to Play Strands
You're dealing with a 6 x 8 grid of letters and need to find words, but unlike a traditional word search, the flow of each word can travel in different directions and pivot. In other words, the "strands" of letters pivot all over the place. You can tap or trace your finger on your mobile device to submit a word.
Each day's puzzle has a somewhat obtuse theme that reads like a crossword clue. Official puzzle words are all related to that theme, but there's also a way to receive further hints: if you submit three words unrelated to the theme, you'll receive a hint in the form of all the letters needed for a word related to the theme. These always need to be four letters or longer.
It'll then be up to you to guess the flow of that particular strand. As you unlock official guesses, they'll be highlighted in blue. Eventually, you'll uncover the theme's name in gold — called a Spangram! — as it bisects the rest of the puzzle and touches two opposite sides of the board.
In the above example, the theme was "This is where I draw the line." Some of the words were "DESIGN," "CARTOON," and "DOODLES." The Spangram then confirms that these are all terms related to GRAPHIC ART.
March 29 Puzzle Hints
Today's theme is "Pardon my French" so does that mean they're all swear words or some kind of profanity? Without giving too much away, we'll point out that the actual clue involves French to some extent.
Today's Non-Theme Words for Strands
There are plenty of non-theme words you can submit. In no particular order, here are some non-theme words to look for:
- HERS
- REPO
- CLIP
- WARD
- WARP
- CHAD
- DOPE
- SOON
- LOIN
- LOON
- ANION
- CHAW
- LOAN
- PAWN
- LAWN
- LOAF
- RODS
- WADS
Remember that for every three you find, Strands will show you all of the letters used in an on-theme word. Then it's up to you to figure out how to use it to spell out a word.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Today's On-Theme Words for Strands
As soon as you get your first word based on hints, which for us was CHIC, it becomes pretty clear that all of the words are actual French terms that've been more or less absorbed into common English. As such, many of them may be hard to spell correctly. If you reveal the letters via unlocking a Hint, then consider resorting to Google for some kind of anagram solver. (An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another, but for most solvers, you can submit nonsense strings of letters.)
Here are all of the on-theme words on the board:
- CHIC
- BERET
- BUREAU
- LIAISON
- APERITIF
- CHAUFFEUR
- LOAN WORDS (Spangram)
"Loanword" is the term for foreign language word that has been adopted into another language with little or no modification. Cafe, for instance, is also originally French. So we're surprised that didn't make it into today's Strands.
