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ForbesToday’s NYT Strands picks, spangram and answers for Wednesday, September 18From Kris Holt

Hey everyone! I hope you’re having a fantastic week. I’m trying to drink more water, so I keep a big bottle of H2O next to me at the start of the work day. I usually start this after I’ve had my usual two cups of tea and a thermos of coffee though. Oops.

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, spangram and answers coming soon.

How to play Strands

The New York Times Strands Puzzle is a nod to the classic word search puzzle. It is now available in NYT Games app alongside similar Wordle And Connections (which we also cover in the daily Forbes Games guides).

There is a new game from Strands to play every day. The game presents you with a 6×8 grid of letters. The goal is to find a group of words that have something in common and you will get a clue as to what that theme is. When you find a theme word, it will stay highlighted in blue.

You also need to find a special word called a spangram. This tells you what the words have in common. The spangram connects at least two sides of the board, but it doesn’t have to start or end there. While the theme words won’t be a proper noun, the spangram can be a proper noun. Once you’ve found the spangram, it will remain highlighted in yellow.

Each letter is used once in one of the themed words and spangrams. You can connect letters vertically, horizontally and diagonally and it is possible to change direction in the middle of a word. If you are playing on a touchscreen, double tap the last letter to submit your guess.

When you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the topic, the Hint button is unlocked. When clicked, it highlights the letters that make up one of the topic words.

Be warned: you have to be on your guard. Sometimes you will have to fill in the 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 tip?

Scroll slowly! Immediately after today’s note Strands Puzzle, I will reveal the answer words.

The official theme note for today’s Beach Puzzle is…

Fix the errors

Need additional help? Here’s another hint…

Not necessarily software problems

There are Seven Topic words found today, including the spangram.

What are today’s NYT beach advisories?

Warning, spoilers! Don’t scroll down until you’re ready to see today’s Strands Notes.

Here are the first two letters of each word, including the spangram, in today’s puzzle:

What are today’s NYT Strands answers?

Before I tell the others the full word list, I will first tell you the spangram and show you where it is in the grid.

This is your final spoiler warning!

Today’s Strands Spangram is…

Crawlies

Here’s where to find it in the grid…

The rest of today’s Strands Topic words are …

• EARWORM
• Crawlies
• SPIDER
• TERMITE
• CENTIPEDE
• BEETLE

This is what the finished grid looks like…

I found BEETLE in the bottom left pretty quickly. However, my initial Spangram guess of “Creepy Crawlie” was incorrect (why I didn’t try the plural at this point I’ll never understand).

EARWIG in the upper left was the next word. Mite below was not a keyword, but Termite was. SPIDER in the upper right was my fourth word. MILLIPEDE left the spangram to finish things off.

I didn’t use any hints and the spangram was the last topic word I found.

That’s all for today Strands Hints and answers. If you need hints and the solution for Friday’s game, be sure to check out my blog.