Strands
Looking for tips, spangram and answers for Tuesday’s Strands? You can find them here:
It’s Wednesday, which means half the week is over, unless it’s morning, when it’s already two-fifths. But pass the time with a new Strands puzzle featuring the word that has puzzled me the most in all my time playing.
This is how you play Strands
The New York Times’ Strands Puzzle is a nod to the classic word search puzzle. It is currently in beta, meaning it will only remain available if enough people play it daily.
There is a new game from strands to play every day. The game presents you with a letter grid of six by eight letters. The goal is to find a group of words that have something in common and give you a clue as to what the topic is. When you find a topic word, it remains highlighted in blue.
You also need to find a special word called Spangram. This will tell you what the words have in common. The spangram connects two opposite sides of the board. While the topic words are not a proper noun, the spangram can be a proper noun. When you find the Spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.
Each letter is used once in one of the topic words and in the Spangram. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally and change direction in the middle of a word. If you’re playing on a touchscreen, double-tap the last letter to place your guess.
Finding three valid off-topic words with at least four letters will unlock the Hint button. Clicking on it will highlight the letters that make up one of the topic words.
But be careful: you have to be alert. Sometimes you will have to fill in missing words in a phrase. Other days the game may revolve around synonyms or homophones. The level of difficulty varies from day to day and the puzzle authors will sometimes try to surprise you.
What is today’s Strands clue?
We’ll start with the NYT’s official note for the day and then I’ll create one of my own. The topic here isn’t the most difficult this time:
Native
And my note:
Spice
This should definitely get you on the right track in my opinion.
What are today’s Strands answers?
Scroll slowly! This is where the spoilers begin, first with the Spangram and then with the full list of words that make up the rest of the puzzle. The spangram is:
HERB GARDEN
And this is how it fits on the board:
strands
Here are the rest of the answers:
BASIL
ROSEMARY
PARSLEY
SAGE
THYME
CORIANDER
NYT
Okay, first of all… what is CORIANDER??? I’ve never been so stumped by a word. I’ve googled herbs, I’ve tried using a letter unscrambler, I’ve almost asked my Twitter followers. My fellow cooking expert Erik had to enlighten me, but I’ve honestly never heard of this thing in my life, which was a huge problem. Certainly the most stumped I’ve ever been by a single word in such a puzzle.
In case you don’t know either, coriander is:
“The seeds come from the plant Coriandrum sativum. Outside the United States, cilantro refers to the leaves and stems of the plant Coriandrum sativum, and the seeds are called coriander seeds. Coriander seeds are round, beige in color, and have a sweet-spicy flavor profile. Coriander seeds can be purchased whole or ground and are commonly used in pickling brines and in many Indian cuisines.”
So, yes, the more you know. The rest was easy, I’m not a complete idiot, I know what SAGE and THYME are. But yes, that was a difficult question.
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