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NYT Strands explores dystopian fiction as today’s brain-teasing theme
Spangram: DYSTOPIAN NOVEL ties together chilling classics and modern nightmares
Theme words draw from iconic books like The Hunger Games, Animal Farm, and The Handmaid’s Tale
A brand new Strands challenge has landed to test your word-hunting skills this Tuesday. If you’re ready to take on some grid-based brainwork before the week hits full speed, today’s puzzle has just the right mix of intrigue and challenge.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know, from theme clues to spangram and all seven solutions, to assist you with solving the May 27 edition with confidence.
Strands is The New York Times' take on word search. It can be found on the NYT Games website and the NYT Games app, in addition to well-loved games like Wordle and Connections.
Every puzzle contains a 6x8 grid of letters. Your challenge is to find a group of linked words based on a concealed theme.
Theme words will be colored blue when discovered.
The spangram, the longer word or phrase that connects all theme words, will be highlighted yellow and cross at least two edges of the board.
You can move letters in every direction and change direction within a word.
Double-tap the last letter on touchscreens to submit.
In case you find three legitimate four-letter words that are not theme-related, you will be able to find the Hint button that will light up letters from a theme word.
Main hint: A Strange New World
Bonus clue: Fictional Hellscapes
These are all hints that directly lead to dystopian fiction, dark and frequently politicized fictional realms developed as warnings. Consider bleak futures, tyrannical regimes, and survival against the odds.
Spangram: DYSTOPIAN NOVEL
This is the master phrase that unites all of the theme words. Today’s puzzle takes inspiration from the great and modern dystopian novels, fictions that imagine unsettling alternate realities as a means of critiquing society today.
Here are the seven theme words from today’s grid:
ANIMAL – Animal Farm
HUNGER – The Hunger Games
HANDMAID’S – The Handmaid’s Tale
FARM – Animal Farm
GAMES – The Hunger Games
TALE – The Handmaid’s Tale
Each word references an influential dystopian story, classic titles that have shaped the genre and inspired discussion of freedom, control, and resistance.
The term FARM initiated everything for me with a useful suggestion. There was TALE close by, indicating The Handmaid’s Tale. This was followed by GAMES, which assisted in linking with The Hunger Games. ANIMAL was another suggestion that provided me with a DYSTOPIAN NOVEL after it. Closing the set with HUNGER and HANDMAID’S rounded it up neatly.
This was an equally challenging and enjoyable NYT Strands puzzle, and a wonderful reminder of the way literature can mirror the darker aspects of our world through fictional ones.
