Home / Daily hints / Strands solver
Strands solver
Type the letters from your board and see every word you can trace, longest first. Spangram candidates are flagged, and tapping a word shows its path.
Row by row, or all 48 letters in one go. Spaces and line breaks are ignored.
Names and phrases are not in any word list, so type your guess here and we will find it on the board.
Today's board is puzzle 940, 29 September. Its hints are on the Strands hints page.
Type your board on the left and the words will appear here.
How the Strands solver works
Strands hides a set of words on a six by eight board. You link letters that touch, sideways, up, down or diagonally, and each letter can be used once in a word. The solver tries every starting letter and every path, and keeps the ones that spell a word in our list.
It cannot know the theme, so it does not guess. It sorts the words so the likely ones are easy to spot: longer first, everyday words in bold, and spangram candidates in their own group at the top. The spangram always crosses the board from one side to the other, which is a strong clue on its own.
Words that are not part of the theme still count. The game gives you a hint every time you find three of them, so a stray word on the board is worth having.
Questions, answered briefly
How do I use the Strands solver?
Type or paste the 48 letters from your board. You can put each row on its own line, or paste all 48 in one go. The solver lists every word you can trace by moving to a neighbouring letter each time, longest first. Tap a word to see its path on the board.
Does it tell me which words are the theme words?
No. Only the puzzle knows that. What we do is list every word on the board, put everyday words in bold, and flag the words that reach two opposite sides of the board, because the spangram always does. Read the theme clue, then look for words that fit it.
What is a spangram?
The one word in Strands that describes the whole theme. It always runs from one side of the board to the opposite side, so it touches the top and the bottom, or the left and the right.
Which dictionary does it use?
A list of about 114,000 words of four letters or more, built from the open SCOWL project. It holds British and American spellings, so both colour and color are there. It has no proper nouns, so a place name or a person's name will not appear.
Why is the spangram not in the list?
Most spangrams are phrases, such as two or three words run together, and no word list contains a phrase. Use the Spangram candidates group for single words, and for a phrase type your guess into the box under the board. We will show whether it can be traced, and whether it reaches two opposite sides.
Why is a theme word missing?
Usually because the puzzle used a name, a brand, or an unusual word that is not in a general dictionary. Check the letters you typed first, then lower the minimum length in case the word is short.
Does my board leave my device?
No. The whole search runs in your browser. The board is not sent anywhere.
Can I use it for the puzzle in progress?
Yes, that is what it is for. Mark each word as found and switch on Hide found words, and the list shrinks to what is left.