How to play Strands
Strands hides a set of theme words inside a grid of 48 letters, plus one spangram that names the theme and runs from one side of the board to the other. Every letter is used exactly once. This page explains the grid, the spangram and how the in-game hints are earned.
The goal
Find every theme word hidden in the letter grid. Each board opens with a short theme clue, and every theme word matches that clue. One special word, the spangram, describes the theme itself and stretches across the whole board, touching two opposite sides. The theme words and the spangram together use every one of the 48 letters exactly once, so a finished board has no letters left over.
How a round works
Step 1 - Read the theme clue. The clue at the top of the board is your only starting information. It is usually a nudge or a small joke about the theme, not a definition of it.
Step 2 - Trace words through the grid. Spell a word by moving through letters that touch each other, in any direction, including diagonally. The path can bend as often as it needs to, and theme words are at least four letters long.
Step 3 - Theme words lock in. When you trace a theme word, it stays highlighted on the board and its letters are spoken for. Words that are real but are not theme words still count, as explained in the hints section below.
Step 4 - Find the spangram. The spangram is the theme word that names the theme, and it runs from one side of the board to the opposite side. It can be a single word or a short phrase written as one string, with no spaces. Finding it early tends to unlock the rest of the board, because it tells you exactly what the theme words have in common.
Step 5 - Use every letter. The round is solved when all of the theme words and the spangram are found, which is also when every letter on the board has been used.
Hints, and what they cost
Strands has no mistake counter and no score. Help comes from the board itself: any word of four or more letters that you find and that is not a theme word still counts toward a hint. Find three of those words and you earn one hint, and a hint points you to a theme word on the board. Nothing is wasted in Strands; even a wrong turning fills the hint counter.
Good first moves
Hunt the spangram early. Long words that cross the board are easier to spot than short theme words, and the spangram names the theme outright. Look for a path of connected letters that reaches from one side of the grid toward the other.
Work from the clue, then scan for letters. List a few words the theme clue suggests, then look for their opening letters bunched together on the board. A word you are not looking for is much harder to see in a full grid.
Mind the corners and edges. Every letter has to be used, so a cluster of untouched letters in a corner late in a solve is not scrap: it is most of a word you have not found yet.
Spend hints you have earned. A stuck board does not improve by staring at it. Finding any three ordinary words of four or more letters earns a hint, so sweep up the small words first and let the hint do its work.
Common questions
Does the spangram have to run left to right?
No. It has to touch two opposite sides of the board, which can be the left and right edges or the top and bottom, and its path bends through the grid rather than running in a straight line.
Can a letter be used in two different words?
No. In the finished board, every letter belongs to exactly one word, either a theme word or the spangram. That is what makes the leftover letters near the end of a solve so useful.
How long is a theme word?
At least four letters. The number of theme words changes from board to board: recent boards in our archive carry five, six or seven, plus the spangram every time.