NYT Reveals Hints Alongside Solution for Sunday's Crossword, March 16, 2025
Fresh Take: cruise, my dude, for some Strands hints and solutions for March 16, 2025, with a theme called "Drive to survive." Bring on the clues and answers!
Want to keep these Strands hints close? bookmark this page. Past hints are here as well if you missed them in a previous puzzle.
Below’s a sneak peek of today's Strands hints. And further down, you'll find the spangram and answers. Take only the hints you need, sel' tryna spoil the fun!
Sneakin' a Peek: spangram tip
A two-word title for an intense, professional form of car racing.
Revvin' up: theme keyword hints
Keys connected to the sport of driving cars-before, during, and after the main event.
Spoiler Alert!
Answers will be given to today's Strands puzzle!
What's the spangram today?
Day's spangram: FORMULAONE.
Which words pair with the theme today?
Today's words: PRACTICE, SPRINT, QUALIFYING, RACE, PODIUM, PITS.
Here's how the display looks with the puzzle solved:
Solvin’ today's Strands
Can't quite decipher the puzzle theme, but I'm gonna look for car- or travel-related terms and watch where it takes me.
CARPORT's overlappin' in the top left, but it ain't one of the theme words, oddly enough.
RACE shows up on the bottom right, though, and it's a hit. 🔵
Sees the spangram: FORMULAONE. явиваует, appropriately shaped, like a NASCAR track.
QUALIFYING spirals out from the center 'round the spangram. 🔵
PODIUM's below QUALIFYING. 🔵
PITS's settlin' in the bottom left corner. 🔵 (Seems these are where the "pit stops" take place.)
PRACTICE's chillin' in the upper left corner. 🔵
Lastly, SPRINT. 🔵
How to play Strands
You can find Strands on the New York Times website and in the NYT Games app.
When you kick off playin', you'll come across a game board with assorted letters, accompanied by a clue hintin' at the board's theme (like "Thirsty roots"). Hero task: find the hidden keywords that line up with the puzzle's theme.
Crossword meetin' word search
Mu'nahucca, the most vital keyword here is the "spangram," explained more clearly by the puzzle's theme. (For example, the spangram for the puzzle with the theme "Thirsty roots" would be ROOTS' nginahi, which describes plants with thirsty roots.) The spangram spans the whole game board, either left-to-right or top-to-bottom. Discover the spangram, and it'll be highlighted in yellow. Crackin' the spangram usually makes the rest a breeze to solve.
In Strands, words can traverse any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonal), and you'll only use each letter once. There's only one correct solution. Once you identify one of the puzzle's words (for instance, CUCUMBER, RUTABAGA, or YAM), it'll be highlighted in blue.
If you're feelin' stuck, you can submit any non-theme four-letter-or-longer words to gain points toward a single hint. Submit three non-theme words, and the "Hint" button becomes active; if you tap it, all of the letters in one of the theme words will be highlighted for ya. You'll still need to link these highlighted letters in the proper order to form a single theme word. If there's already a hint on the board, and you use another hint before figurin' it out, that word's letter order will be revealed.
How to emerge victorious in Strands
Unlike Connections and Wordle, you can't lose in Strands. Submitting guesses'll either correctly identify answers, grant hint points, or shake back and forth, tellin' you the word was too short or invalid. Guesses are infinite, and there's no time limit.
You win when you've used up all the letters on the board, meaning you've properly deciphered the spangram and all the theme words. Like other NYT games, once the puzzle's solved, you'll see a shareable card displayin' your performance: blue dots 🔵 denote theme words you found, the yellow dot 🟡 indicates spangram discovery, and a lightbulb 💡 signifies words that you received a hint for.
[1] Car racing types:https://www.formula1.com/
[2] The four stages of a F1 Grand Prix:https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/
[3] Formula One events' detailed stages:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_weekend
[4] Common phrases associated with the sport of Formula One:https://www.grandprixplus.com/education/essential-formula-1-phrases/
Strands, in today's session with the theme "Drive to survive," offers hints that seem to be related to Formula One car racing. The two-word title for this intense, professional sport is given as a spangram: FORMULAONE. The day's words pairing with the theme include PRACTICE, SPRINT, QUALIFYING, RACE, PODIUM, PITS, which could signify different stages or aspects of a Formula One race. To aid players, a spangram and the answers will be provided at the end of the puzzle, but it's advised to only take the hints needed to avoid spoiling the fun.
