Daily New York Times crossword puzzle solutions revealed for May 6, 2025.
Casual Guide for Strands Puzzle on May 6, 2025: "I'm in Lobe" Edition
Hey there, puzzle enthusiasts! Here's a lowdown on today's Strands puzzle, with a few handy hints to help you solve it. If you need to bookmark this page, go right ahead. You'll also find our past puzzles' hints here if you want to catch up on anything you might've missed.
Now, let's dive into the oblique hints for today's answers. Remember, these are subtle clues to point you in the right direction.
Hint for the Spangram in today's Strands Puzzle
Think of decorative accessories that require piercing and a healing period.
Hint for the theme words in today's Strands Puzzle
Consider unique jewelry types that can be hung from lobes, traguses, conchs, or other ear areas.
Warning: Strands puzzle answers are coming up ahead!
We're about to unveil the solutions for today's Strands puzzle.
What is the Spangram in today's Strands?
Today's Spangram is EARRINGS.
What are the theme words in today's Strands?
The theme words are TEARDROP, HOOP, CUFF, STUD, CLIPON, CHANDELIER, and PLUG.
Here's how the board looks when the puzzle is solved:
Solving the Strands Puzzle
"Lobe" brought to mind the various lobes of the brain-frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal. But that may be because I just studied for a neurology exam, skewing my thoughts a bit.
Anyway, STUFF, TUFF, POOT, PIER, CHIP, ARDOR, CHAIN, PAIN, and HURT are the non-theme words.
Perhaps "lobe" refers to earlobes. I see the word "EAR" at the bottom. Ah! Earrings are things that are in lobes. That makes more sense than brain lobes.
STUD is in the bottom left corner.
CUFF is above STUD.
HOOP is above CUFF.
TEARDROP is in the upper left corner.
CHANDELIER hugs the right side of the Spangram.
PLUG is in the bottom right corner.
Lastly, CLIPON.
Playing Strands
You can play the Strands game on the New York Times website and the NYT Games app.
When you start, you'll see a game board with an array of letters, fringed by a clue giving a hint at the board's theme-like "Better with age." Your task is to find the hidden words within the board that align with the puzzle's theme.
A crossword combined with a word search
The key word to locate is the "Spangram," which more explicitly reveals the puzzle's theme. (For example, the Spangram for the puzzle with the theme "Better with age" is FERMENTED, meaning products that improve with time.) The Spangram spans the entire game board, moving from left to right or top to bottom. Once you find the Spangram, it'll be highlighted in yellow. Finding the Spangram usually paves the way for the rest of the puzzle's solution.
In Strands, words can move in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonal), and you will only use each letter once. There is only one correct solution. When you correctly identify one of the puzzle's words (for example, KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it'll be highlighted in blue.
If you're struggling to solve the puzzle, you can submit any non-theme words you notice (provided they are at least four letters long) to earn credit toward a single hint. If you submit three non-theme words, the "Hint" button will become active; if you click it, all the letters in one of the theme words will be highlighted for you. However, you'll still have to connect these highlights in the correct order to assemble a theme word. If there is already a hint on the board, and you use another hint before solving for that word, that word's letter order will be revealed.
Winning Strands
Unlike Connections and Wordle, you cannot lose at Strands. When you submit guesses, either you'll correctly identify an answer, receive credit toward a hint, or the text will vibrate back and forth, indicating that the word you submitted is too short or invalid. You can't run out of attempts, and there's no time limit.
You win when you've successfully used all the letters on the board, meaning you've found the Spangram and all the theme words. Like other NYT games, when you solve the puzzle, you'll see a shareable card that indicates your performance that day: blue dots indicate the theme words you found, the yellow dot indicates when you found the Spangram, and a lightbulb indicates the words for which you received a hint.
Contemplate unique jewelry types, especially those that can be suspended from earlobes as you seek the theme words in today's Strands puzzle. Remember, today's Spangram is EARRINGS.
When trying to identify theme words in the Strands puzzle, consider jewelry you might find in a book's illustration or description, such as TEARDROP, HOOP, CUFF, STUD, CLIPON, CHANDELIER, and PLUG.
