Strands, from The New York Times, is a word search with a theme. You get a 48-letter grid and a short, often punning clue, and the hidden answers fill the board completely with nothing left over. Words can bend in any direction through neighboring letters, and one special answer, the spangram, names the theme and stretches from one edge of the board to the opposite edge. Decoding the clue is where the fun lies.
Every game below asks you to find words by joining neighboring letters, or to account for every tile on a board, the two halves of what makes Strands work. The closest matches, where tracing paths through a grid is the whole game, are listed first; puzzles built on the use-every-letter idea follow.
Builds words from chains of neighboring letters like Strands, but on a small four-by-four board against a ninety-second timer with no theme; it is unlimited, so a fresh board is always one tap away.
The closest relative in spirit: a narrow column of letters must be divided into connected pieces that each read as a word, and only one way of dividing it works, much like Strands leaving no tile unused.
Asks you to drag through adjacent letters, diagonals allowed, but here you clear out every valid word in a small square rather than a themed set; a shorter Express board runs beside it.
Starts from the same kind of letter grid but limits you to three submitted words, so the challenge becomes choosing high-value paths instead of finding them all.
Path tracing through letter tiles again, except the tiles you use disappear and the tower drops, so the board changes after every word and longer finds clear more space.
A word search pared down to its core: one five-letter word hides in a five-by-five square, readable in any direction, and you repeat that for ten boards.
Shares the Strands rule that nothing goes to waste: you slide columns until rows spell words, and the puzzle is done only after each letter has appeared in one.
Words also form from letters sitting next to each other on a board, though here you swap tiles into place and finished words clear away until the grid is empty.
Another puzzle where every letter counts: a small crossword-shaped grid has to hold all 26 letters of the alphabet once each, with the rule itself as your only guide.
Worth a try for the theme-guessing half of Strands: it comes from the same New York Times Games team, and finding the hidden link among sixteen words scratches a similar itch to decoding the clue.
Finding words that are not part of the theme fills a hint meter, and every three such words, each four or more letters long, earns one hint. Using a hint outlines the letters of one theme word, which you then still have to trace yourself. Many players hunt for filler words early just to bank hints for later.
The spangram is the one answer that describes the day's theme. It stretches across the board from one edge to the opposite edge, either side to side or top to bottom, and it turns yellow when found, while ordinary theme words turn blue. Finding it early often explains the rest of the puzzle.
Yes. Strands is free on the New York Times Games site and app, with one new puzzle each day at midnight local time. If you want more letter tracing after it, Letter Grid above has no daily limit, and Squaredle adds a quick Express board next to its main puzzle.
