Today's NYT Strands puzzle presented players with a word search featuring the clue "Training day." The objective was to locate hidden words within a grid that share a common theme and identify a special word known as the spangram that connects two edges of the board.
The New York Times game Strands is available alongside other popular word puzzles like Wordle and Connections on the organization's website and mobile app. Each day features a new puzzle with a unique theme. Players must find all the theme words and the spangram using every letter in the six-by-eight grid.
A secondary hint for the May 7 puzzle offered "Freight components" to guide solvers toward the theme. Finding three non-theme words four letters or longer unlocks hints that reveal letters for one of the theme words.
The spangram for the May 7 puzzle was "ALL ABOARD". This phrase captured the overall theme and stretched across the puzzle grid.
Other words hidden in the grid completing the theme included "ENGINE", "BOXCAR", "GONDOLA", "FLATBED", "HOPPER", and "CABOOSE".
Together, the found words represent various types of train cars, aligning with both the "Training day" clue and the "Freight components" hint. The initial clue uses a play on words, referring to elements associated with trains.
Writer Kris Holt, who covers word games, noted needing multiple hints to solve the puzzle and did not fully understand the connection between the words until after completion, highlighting the puzzle's difficulty. Words like "GONDOLA," "BOXCAR," and "HOPPER" in the context of trains were unfamiliar to some players.
The difficulty of the Strands puzzle can fluctuate daily, sometimes relying on synonyms, homophones, or common phrases, requiring players to remain observant of potential connections.
