Today’s NYT Strands hints and answers

Credit: New York Times

Lazy Sunday is here and snow has turned to rain and back to snow again. That makes for some icy conditions. But it’s great to get the moisture. Our dry, dry forests need every drop they can get. We have some words to uncover and a very sweet grid to solve, so let’s take a crack at today’s Strands puzzle!

Looking for Saturday’s Strands? Check out our guide right here.

How To Play Strands

Strands is the newest game in the New York Times’ stable of puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Every day we’re given a new theme and then tasked with uncovering all the words on the grid that fit that theme, including a spangram that spans two sides of the board. One of these words is the spangram which crosses from one side of the grid to another and reveals even more about the day’s theme.

Spoilers ahead.

Today’s Strands Hints

Read on for today’s theme and some hints to help you uncover today’s words.

Today’s Theme: Ivy League

Hint: All of them except Big Green and Big Red.

Here are the first two letters of each word:

Remember, spoilers ahead!

What Are Today’s Strands Answers?

Today’s spangram is: CANDY AISLE

Here’s the full list of words:

• NERDS
• STARBURST
• RUNTS
• WHATCHAMACALLIT
• DOTS

Here’s the completed Strands grid:

Today’s Strands Breakdown

I somehow found STARBURST first today, despite it being the second longest word in this Strands. WHATCHAMACALLIT is the longest and trickiest of the bunch, though I still found it before the spangram, CANDYAISLE. I’d found CANDY much earlier on and knew it would be the spangram, but couldn’t figure out how until I’d found the rest. I actually found WHATCHAMACALLIT because I tried ICALLITCANDY for the spangram and when that didn’t work, the CALLIT ended up cluing me in. A moderately tough puzzle today, and now I want some chocolate!

How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.

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