NYT Strands Hints, July 21: Paper-inspired theme, spangram and answers to solve the Monday puzzle

Time of India

a day ago

What sets Strands apart from its siblings in the NYT puzzle universe is its fusion of vocabulary, visual recognition, and cultural reference. Whether you're solving during your morning coffee break or as a night-time wind-down, it offers a quiet yet fulfilling mental challenge.
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NYT Strands: A New Entrant to the Word Puzzle Legacy
July 21 Puzzle Theme: 'I Fold!'
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Solving With Strategy: Theme Hints That Helped
Hint #1: A diamond-shaped flying toy on a string often made of paper – (Answer: KITE)
Hint #2: A long-necked bird that also features prominently in origami – (Answer: CRANE)
NYT Strands Spangram Hint and Clue Breakdown
Complete Set of Theme Words for July 21
BOAT
FISH
BUTTERFLY
FROG
CRANE
KITE
HEART
FLOWER
How the Puzzle Unfolded for Players
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What Exactly Is a Spangram?
Tips for Solving Future Strands Puzzles
Scan for common prefixes – Words like ORI or KITE may offer quick inroads.
Think thematically – Use the given theme as your compass. If the title is 'I Fold!', think of verbs and nouns associated with folding or paper.
Look for symmetry – Since theme words often cluster or mirror each other across the grid, identifying one may hint at its pair.
Keep the Spangram in mind – If you can spot even the first or last two letters, you might unlock the entire board.
FAQs
What is NYT Strands?
What was the theme of the July 21, 2025 puzzle?
For puzzle enthusiasts seeking something more challenging than Wordle or Connections, the New York Times' fast-rising word game, Strands, continues to captivate a growing base of solvers with its unique mechanics and themed wordplay. On Monday, July 21, 2025, the game delivered yet another intriguing puzzle, themed around the concept of 'I fold!', inviting solvers into the meticulous world of paper artistry.While the Strands game offers a daily cerebral workout with its clever grid layout and thematic clues, today's challenge proved particularly stimulating, prompting many players to seek out Strands hints to stay afloat in a sea of seemingly disjointed letters.The New York Times, already home to global sensations such as Wordle, Connections, and The Mini Crossword, launched Strands as part of its expanding 'Games' portfolio. Designed to balance logic with linguistic intuition, Strands tasks players with finding themed words within a six-by-eight letter grid.Each puzzle opens with a daily theme, and within that grid, players must identify interconnected words that relate to it. Among these theme words lies one crucial key: the Spangram. This word or phrase stretches across the board—either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally—anchoring the theme and offering a strategic advantage once uncovered.For July 21, 2025, the daily puzzle bore the title 'I Fold!', a clever double entendre that teased both submission and paper-folding practices. The NYT Strands theme stumped many early risers, not due to obscure vocabulary, but due to its creative abstraction.For players struggling to find traction, the first set of Strands hints proved critical. The game encouraged solvers to consider shapes and models made entirely from folded paper, a reference to the traditional Japanese art form, origami.A couple of well-placed nudges helped players get closer to solving the puzzle, as per a report by Beebom:These word cues, while specific, carried universal recognition—especially among those familiar with origami. Recognizing these helped unlock not only additional theme words, but also the all-important Spangram.The Spangram is a special element within each puzzle—spanning the entire board and providing a linguistic umbrella for the rest of the answers. For the July 21 puzzle, the hint for the Spangram was that it began with the letters 'OR' and ran horizontally across the board.The final solution? Origami – a perfect encapsulation of the day's theme. Once identified, it served as a revealing bridge between words such as FROG, FISH, and BUTTERFLY, all classic figures made through folding paper.For those still piecing the puzzle together, the eight theme words in the grid, according to a report by Beebom, were :Each of these words is an object or figure that can be made by folding paper; some of them staple in origami practice, others are slightly more abstract but still fitting.Many players shared their solving journeys online, noting that once they spotted simpler shapes like BOAT or FISH, the puzzle's theme quickly clicked. Some reported identifying ORI early on, which led them to uncover the Spangram, a major breakthrough that allowed other words to fall into place with ease.For newer players, the presence of recognizable words such as HEART and FLOWER helped establish footholds, while experienced solvers appreciated the subtler nods to traditional paper-folding culture.While Strands challenges users to find multiple theme words, it's the Spangram that gives structure to the game. Unlike the usual theme words, the Spangram stretches across the grid—often making contact with opposite ends. Despite its name, the Spangram does not need to run perfectly edge-to-edge, but it always encapsulates the heart of the puzzle's theme.In practice, solving the Spangram provides significant leverage, as many adjacent letters forming that long word tend to overlap with other answers, thus speeding up the solving process.For players still honing their strategy, seasoned solvers suggest a few evergreen approaches:Strands is still relatively new, but its fanbase is expanding quickly. With its unique blend of thematic coherence and spatial strategy, the game is carving out a niche among word game enthusiasts.NYT Strands is a new word puzzle from The New York Times, launched as part of its growing Games suite. Unlike Wordle or Connections, Strands challenges players to find interconnected themed words within a 6x8 letter grid—combining logic, vocabulary, and pattern recognition.The theme was 'I Fold!', a clever play on both giving up and the intricate art of origami, the Japanese practice of paper folding.