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The NYT Strands for July 21 explores the serene world of origami through a thoughtful paper-themed word set
ORIGAMI, the spangram, connects delicate creations like CRANE, BUTTERFLY, and KITE
A precise, peaceful puzzle that rewards patience, creativity, and quiet observation
Monday starts off like a fresh, uncreased sheet of paper, full of corners we may not be ready to confront. The weekend has come to an end, and the familiar pressures return: overflowing inboxes, endless meetings, and rising expectations. However, today’s Strands presents a different kind of beginning, one that is gentler and inviting. It doesn’t push us to take immediate action; instead, it encourages us to embrace stillness.
The title of today’s NYT Strands is “I Fold!” This isn’t about folding cards or feeling tired; it’s about intention. It reflects the idea of taking something ordinary and transforming it into something beautiful. Origami, the simple art form, teaches us to convert stillness into something that can soar.
For the newly folded:
The board consists of a 6x8 grid of letters.
Hidden within the grid are theme words, shining blue when discovered.
One special word, the spangram, transcends two or more borders, golden yellow. It is the spine, the pivot, the thread.
No duplicate letters in a word.
No redundant words.
Whenever you generate three valid non-theme words, you are given a subtle cue.
This is not a competition. It is an unfolding. A fold. A respite.
ORIGAMI – A single sheet of paper, endless possibilities. Paper becoming poetry. The word rides the grid like a crease that has within it every other form. It does not scream the theme; it embodies it.
FISH – Shapely fluidity. The fold that swims. Simple, serene.
CRANE – Most familiar. A peace symbol, a wish symbol, a waiting symbol of long duration.
BOAT – Buoyant, childlike, remembered. A shape that floats us.
FROG – Folded tension, a leap in the making.
KITE – String-held and sky-bound. A fluttering fold.
BUTTERFLY – Delicate, balanced, fleeting. A paper breath.
HEART – Sharpness shaped into softness. Symmetry of sentiment.
FLOWER – A bloom from folds. Not grown, but made.
This NYT Strands puzzle did not fit together. It came apart. Unfolded. Slowly. With presence. BOAT and CRANE emerged first, easy shapes, at once familiar. FISH swam into place next. Then the grid began to fold inward.
The spangram ORIGAMI ran across the puzzle like a line of organization. From that, the rest fell into place easily: FROG, KITE, BUTTERFLY, a breeze of shapes. HEART and FLOWER finished the set with softness and bloom.
It was not a test. It was a dance of peace. Monday is never a grace. But this day, Strands gave them exactly that: an opportunity to fold the messiness, to take the week’s emptiness and mold it gently, quietly into something.
