The New York Times Strands puzzle for January 14th presented a moderate challenge, even for experienced players. Today’s theme revolves around expressions of enthusiasm and eagerness. Here’s a breakdown to help players who are stuck.
Understanding the Puzzle
Strands is a word-search puzzle where the goal is to find words hidden within a grid of letters. The key twist is that the words all relate to a specific theme, and there is always one “spangram”—a word that stretches across the entire grid. The game offers in-game hints after finding three words of four or more letters.
Hints and Clues
The theme for today’s puzzle is: “Oh boy!”. A helpful clue is: “Really into this.”
To unlock the in-game hints, consider these starting words:
- TEST
- REST
- NEST
- TIDE
- DOSE
- THIS
- CITE
- VENT
- DOUSE
- ROUSE
- LOUSE
- THIN
- FERN
- HALE
Complete Solutions
The non-spangram answers for today’s puzzle are:
- EAGER
- EXCITED
- FERVENT
- ZEALOUS
- ENTHUSIASTIC
The spangram, which spans the grid from left to right, is LETSDOTHIS. Start with the ‘L’ in the top row and trace down to uncover the full word.
Solving Strands requires a combination of vocabulary, pattern recognition, and a bit of persistence. The spangram is always the hardest part, as it requires visualizing how letters connect across the entire board.
