Hints and Solutions for NYT Strands on May 16

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If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game. Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special word or phrase that sums up that day's theme and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections. If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle to help you progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: To a degree. The words are education-related.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained: These words are things found at an educational ceremony. NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal? Today's NYT Strands spangram is vertical. NYT Strands spangram answer today: Today's spangram is Graduation.

NYT Strands word list for May 16: Speech, Diploma, Photo, Graduation, Procession, Tassel, Gown. Looking for other daily online games? Hotnchill has several hints available, and if you're looking for more puzzles, our games hub features options like Mahjong, Sudoku, free crosswords, and more. Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.