Before today’s Strands hints, spangram and answers, here are Thursday’s:
Hey, folks! Today’s NYT Strands hints, spangram and answers for Friday, May 22 are coming right up.
How To Play NYT Strands
The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s available on the NYT website and in the NYT Games app alongside the likes of Wordle and Connections (which we also cover in daily guides at Forbes Gaming).
There’s a new game of Strands to play every day. The game will present you with a six by eight grid of letters. The aim is to find a group of words that have something in common, and you’ll get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will remain highlighted in blue.
You’ll also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram links at least two sides of the board, but it may not start or end there. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Every letter is used once in the theme words and spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally, and it’s possible to switch directions in the middle of a word. If you’re playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.
If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you’ll unlock the Hint button. Clicking this will highlight the letters that make up one of the theme words.
Today’s NYT Strands Hint
Scroll slowly! Just after the hint for today’s Strands puzzle, I’ll reveal what the first two letters for the spangram and the other words are.
The official theme hint for today’s Strands puzzle is…
Put down your ruler
Need some extra help? Here’s another hint…
Not exactly small
There are seven theme words to find today, including the spangram.
Today’s NYT Strands Opening Letters
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Strands opening letters.
Here are the first two letters of every theme word in today’s puzzle. They’re ordered from left to right, then top to bottom by any letter of the word appearing for the first time:
Today’s NYT Strands Spangram
Before I reveal the other the full word list, I’ll first tell you the spangram and show you where that is on the grid.
This is your final spoiler warning!
Scroll slowly, because I’ll tell you what all the theme words are immediately after showing you where the spangram is.
Today’s Strands spangram is…
IT’S BIG
Here’s where you’ll find it on the grid…
Today’s NYT Strands Answers
Today’s Strands theme words are…
- BOUNDLESS
- EPIC
- IMMENSE
- VAST
- IT’S BIG
- WHOPPING
- ASTRONOMIC
Here’s what the completed grid looks like…
I used zero hints and the spangram was the third theme word I found.
It took me a minute to figure out what the theme hint was referring to. I suppose it means that a ruler would be insufficient to measure things that are VAST, BOUNDLESS etc.
That’s it for my current run of Strands coverage. See you for more in two weeks!
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