Today's Strands Puzzle: Hints and Answers for Thursday, August 13
The New York Times' Strands puzzle for Thursday, August 13, is now live, and as reported by Forbes and Yahoo News New Zealand, the official theme hint is "Coming in hot." For those seeking extra help, a second hint is provided: "Ways to describe someone who can raise the temperature."
The puzzle features seven theme words to find, including the spangram. The spangram, which links at least two sides of the board, is FIREBRAND. The full list of theme words is FIREBRAND, HEATED, FIERCE, ZEALOUS, INTENSE, FERVENT, and TORRID.
For players who want a nudge without full spoilers, the opening letters of each theme word, ordered from left to right and top to bottom, are FI, HE, FI, ZE, IN, FE, TO.
How to Play NYT Strands
As detailed in the guides, Strands is a word search puzzle available on the NYT website and in the NYT Games app, alongside games like Wordle and Connections. Each day presents a six by eight grid of letters. The goal is to find a group of words that share a common theme, with a clue given to hint at that theme. Found theme words remain highlighted in blue.
The spangram is a special word that reveals what the theme words have in common, and it links at least two sides of the board, though it may not start or end there. When found, the spangram is highlighted in yellow.
Every letter in the grid is used exactly once across the theme words and spangram. Letters can be connected vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, and you can change direction mid-word. On touchscreens, double-tapping the last letter submits a guess.
If you find three valid words of at least four letters that are not part of the theme, you unlock the Hint button, which highlights the letters of one theme word.
Author's Approach
Forbes contributor Kris Holt, whose guide is also carried by Yahoo News New Zealand, noted that he used no hints while solving this puzzle and found the spangram as the third theme word. The article was originally published on Forbes.com.