Tips, Feedback and Help for Today’s NYT Strands for Dec. 6, #278

You want the most recent Turn the threads? Click here for our daily tips for Strands, as well as our daily answers and hints for the New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Connections puzzles.

Threads don’t get as much attention as their New York Times game siblings Wordle and Connections, but they can be challenging and fun. Strands just came out of beta, so it’s now on the official New York Times gaming app, which could bring in more fans. I delve into Strands’ rules in this matter.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turn 1: These 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

How to play NYT Strands

1. Use today’s topic to look up words related to that topic. Do you see one? Drag or click the letters in their order. Double-click the last letter to submit your guess. If you have found a theme name, it will light up in blue and stay that way.

2. Some of the words you find are considered hint words that give you clues to the theme words. Find three hint words (must be at least four letters each) and the game will reward you by showing you the theme word. But if you can’t reverse, find three more word hints and the game will highlight the letters of the theme word in order.

3. Hunt for the spangrama special theme word that covers the whole puzzle, although it can flow across or up and down. It summarizes the theme of the puzzle.

4. When you’re done, you’ll have used all the letters on the board for a theme name or spangram. Theme words fill the entire board and do not overlap.

Today’s Strands puzzle hint

Today’s Strands theme is: Find your people.

If that doesn’t help, here’s a clue: Who you hang out with.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find the hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you’re stuck, find any words you can find. Every time you find three words of four or more letters, the Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those tips, but any four or more letter words you find will work:

• GORE, ROUGE, PORE, SHIP, WRE, SILL, RILE, CORE, ROPE, CROW, PILE, PILES, LICE, RICE, PIECE, SWOT, SCOW, SCOWS, SWEAR, KE, FILE.

Today’s Strands puzzle answers

These are the answers to the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find all, including the spangram, the theme word from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you get them all (at first I thought there were always eight but I learned that the number can vary), all the letters on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• CLUB, BUNCH, CROWD, GROUP, CIRCLE, CLIQUE, SOCIETY

Today Strands spangram

Today Strands spangram is RELATIONSHIP. To find it, start with F which is three letters from the left and three letters down, then circle.