Today’s Strands theme is “None of your beeswax”, and the spangram is BUSYBODY. This guide gives hints first, from gentle to direct, and keeps the full answers at the bottom so you can stop whenever you have enough.
Today’s theme
The New York Times clue is “None of your beeswax.” Every theme word describes a person who pokes into other people’s business, or what that person does.
Hints before the answers
- Mood: think nosiness, not crime. These are the habits of someone who can’t leave other people’s business alone.
- Word length: the theme words run from 4 letters to 13, so scan for one very long word and one very short one.
- The spangram: it is a single word for the kind of person the theme describes, and it runs from one side of the grid to the opposite side.
- A wording nudge: one answer ends in “-ING”, one ends in “-IVE” and one ends in “-Y”, which can help when you are tracing letter paths.
Stuck on the board? Strands also gives you a hint. Find three valid words that aren’t part of the theme, and the game will highlight the letters of one theme word for you.
Opening letters
Here are the first two letters of each answer, without the words themselves:
- EA
- IN
- NO
- PR
- SN
The grid is 6 columns by 8 rows, 48 letters in all, and every letter belongs to exactly one answer. That means the spangram and the five theme words together use the whole board.
Answers (spoilers below)
Spangram: BUSYBODY
Theme words:
- EAVESDROPPING
- INQUISITIVE
- NOSY
- PRYING
- SNOOPY
A quick note on the solve
Start with BUSYBODY. It runs from one side of the board to the other, so once you find it the rest of the grid breaks into smaller pieces. EAVESDROPPING is the longest answer at 13 letters, which makes it the easiest way to check your path against the grid. The short ones, NOSY, PRYING and SNOOPY, tend to be the last to appear because their letters are scattered in the leftover space.
How Strands works
Strands is a word-search style puzzle from The New York Times. Words can twist in any direction, including diagonally, and each letter can only be used once. Theme words turn blue when you find them, and the spangram turns yellow. The spangram names or describes the theme and touches two opposite edges of the grid.
