The New York Times’ daily word puzzle Strands continues to challenge solvers with themed word hunts. For Thursday, June 5, the puzzle leans heavily into nursery rhyme territory, referencing a well-known verse that dates back centuries. If you’re stuck, here’s everything you need—hint, spangram, and complete word list—to crack today’s puzzle.
What is Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s word search-style puzzle still in beta testing. Players are given a 6x8 letter grid and must uncover words that share a common theme. Each theme has a clue, and solvers must also find a “spangram”—a special word that connects two opposite sides of the board and sums up the theme. Unlike theme words, the spangram can be a proper noun.
Today’s official clue
The clue offered by The New York Times is:
“Mary, Mary, quite…”
That line is, of course, a reference to the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, quite contrary.”
Today’s custom hint
If the official clue didn’t do it for you, a more direct hint might be:
“Rhyme words”
This nudges you toward searching for words that appear in the lines of a classic rhyme.
Today’s spangram
The spangram for today’s puzzle is:
GARDEN
This ties into the rhyme’s central question: How does your garden grow?
Full list of theme words
Alongside GARDEN, these are the theme words found in today’s puzzle:
• CONTRARY
• SILVER
• COCKLESHELLS
• BELLS
• MAID
• PRETTY
These words are pulled from different lines of the rhyme, most notably the one that goes:
“With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.”
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