Your presence here indicates you’re looking for help with Strands, the New York Times‘ intricate word-search challenge.

Strands offers players a novel variation on the classic word search. Words can be constructed from adjacent letters in any direction, including diagonally, and may change directions, resulting in unconventional shapes. Every letter in the grid contributes to a solution. A theme unifies all solutions, along with the “spangram,” a unique word or phrase that represents the theme of the day and stretches across the grid either horizontally or vertically.

By offering a vague hint and omitting a word list, Strands presents a more difficult challenge, requiring more time to solve than games like Wordle and Connections.

If you find yourself in a bind or pressed for time, we have all the NYT Strands hints you need to advance at your leisure.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Just a sprinkle

The words pertain to substances.

Today’s NYT Strands theme clearly defined

These terms refer to forms of dust.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Does it go vertical or horizontal?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

Today’s NYT Strands spangram answer

Today’s spangram is Powders