Strands tips: how the hints work and how to find the spangram
Updated October 22, 2026 · 4 min read
Strands has only a few rules, and each one is also a clue about where the answers hide. This page sets out what the New York Times' own instructions and help pages say, keeps that apart from what the game's code happens to do today, and then turns the rules into a method for a stubborn board.
How a board works
Everything in this list comes from the game's How to Play text or the NYT Help Center, read on October 22, 2026.
- The board is six letters across and eight down, 48 letters in all, with a short theme clue above it.
- Spell a word by dragging across neighbouring letters, or by tapping them one at a time and tapping the last letter a second time to submit it.
- The theme words fill the whole board and never overlap, so every letter belongs to exactly one answer.
- Theme words turn blue when found. The spangram describes the theme, touches two opposite sides of the board, can be more than one word, and turns yellow.
- A new puzzle arrives at midnight in your own time zone.
Hints: what earns one and what it shows
The official rule is short: for every three non-theme words you find, you earn a hint. A non-theme word is any accepted word that is not one of the day's answers, and the hint button shows how many of the three you have so far.
- Using a hint draws a dashed outline around the letters of one theme word. It shows which letters, not the order they go in.
- If a hint is still on the board when you use another, the second one reveals the order of that word's letters.
- Your stats include Solved Without Hints, next to Spangram First, which counts the puzzles where the spangram was your very first find.
- Not official: in the game's current code, a hint goes to the shortest theme word you have not found, and the spangram is hinted only once no other theme word is left. That is how the code behaves now, not a published rule, so it may change.
Streaks, stats and the archive
- Finishing a day's board after the next midnight breaks your streak.
- Stats cover completed puzzles, solve rate, current and longest streak, Spangram First and Solved Without Hints. They count from July 8, 2025, and syncing them needs a free NYT account.
- Archive puzzles, for subscribers, count toward your stats but not your streak, and a puzzle you have finished cannot be played again.
- Strands Sidekick, the NYT's community forum with hints and a difficulty score, is open for anyone to read, and the light-bulb icon in the game takes you there.
A method for a stubborn board
These tips are ours, worked out from the rules above rather than taken from the New York Times.
- Answer the clue before you search. Jot down three or four words that could fit the theme, then look for their least common letters on the board.
- Do the spangram arithmetic. A path from the left edge to the right edge has to pass through all six columns, so a side-to-side spangram is at least six letters long; one running top to bottom crosses all eight rows and needs at least eight. Look for long runs that reach from edge to edge.
- Allow for a phrase. The spangram may be more than one word, so a run that reads as two words joined together is worth trying.
- Bank non-theme words as you scan. Every third one earns a hint, so submit any word of four letters or more that you notice on the way, even if it clearly is not an answer.
- Skip three-letter words. Every accepted word is at least four letters long; anything shorter is turned away as too short and earns nothing.
- Work the corners. A corner letter touches only three others, so few paths can pass through it. Asking which answer could use a cornered J, Q or X often narrows things quickly.
- Use what is left. Because the answers fill the board with no gaps, every word you find shrinks the room for the rest. Late in a puzzle, letters walled off in a small pocket must spell the remaining answers among themselves.
- Go for the spangram early. Once it is found the theme stops being a riddle, and the game keeps count of how often you find it first.
Practise between puzzles
Daily practice at reading bending paths, and because squares disappear once you are done with them, it trains you to notice how a board shrinks as words are found.
The best drill for Strands' no-leftovers rule: every letter must be used once, and choosing words in the wrong order can leave you stuck.
Themed grids for practising the jump from a topic to its words, with a new subject on each level.
- Letter GridOurs
Ninety seconds of spotting words that turn through neighbouring tiles, which is good training for the quick scanning that turns up non-theme words for hints.
Questions people ask
How many non-theme words do you need for a hint in Strands?
Three. Every third valid word that is not part of the theme earns one hint, and the hint button shows how many of the three you have found so far.
Does the spangram have to go from top to bottom?
No. It has to touch two opposite sides of the board, which can mean left and right or top and bottom. It can also be more than one word.
Why wasn't my word accepted in Strands?
Only words on the puzzle's own list count. The game answers Too short for anything under four letters and Not in word list for words it does not accept, and a word you have already found is marked Already found.
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