Hints and Answers for the NYT Strands Puzzle on May 18

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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 giving the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games. 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 you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Riding the wind. The words are water-related.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained: These words are things used to travel on water. NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal? Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal. NYT Strands spangram answer today: Today's spangram is Sailboat.

NYT Strands word list for May 18: Mast, Rigging, Helm, Sailboat, Keel, Hull, Rudder, Stern, Tiller. If you're looking for other daily online games, explore our games hub for various puzzles and challenges. Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.

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