NYT ‘Strands’ Hints, Spangram And Answers For Sunday, April 20

Well, given what day it is, I think you can probably guess the theme of today’s Strands puzzle as they tend to mark occasions like this. So that’s your first clue at baseline.

How To Play Strands

The New York Times’ Strands puzzle is a play on the classic word search. It’s in beta for now, which means it’ll only stick around if enough people play it every day.

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 two opposite sides of the board. While the theme words will not be a proper name, the spangram can be a proper name. When you find the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.

Be warned: You’ll need to be on your toes.

“Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones,” The New York Times notes. “Just as she varies the difficulty of Wordle puzzles within a week, [Wordle and Strands editor Tracy]

Bennett plans to throw Strands solvers curveballs every once in a while.”

What Is Today’s Strands Hint?

The NYT hint comes first and then I’m sort of just going to spell it out in my own hint after that.

On the Hunt

And mine is

Easter, it’s obviously Easter

Yeah I mean, come on. Now get going.

What Are Today’s Strands Answers?

Spoilers follow from here and then the answer will be below the spangram, which is:

EASTERBASKET

And here’s where that lies on the board:

And the answers are:

• EGGS
• TOYS
• BOOKS
• CHOCOLATE
• BUNNY
• CANDY
• PEEPS

So yes, this is Easter-themed, though more specifically, what’s in an Easter Basket. By rabbit, I assume they mean rabbit toys or chocolate rabbits, not literal rabbits. But I’m guessing that at least some kids at some point got pet rabbits this way. As for my favorite thing in the bunch, that would be chocolate. What about you?

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