NYT Strands hints, answers for January 18

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 you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: O ___! My ___!These words share the same “rank.”

Mashable Top Stories

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedWords are famous captains.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday’s spangram is Captain.

NYT Strands word list for January 18Crunch

Hook

Underpants

Obvious

Planet

Kangaroo

Captain

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.