Strands
Strands

NEW YORK — The New York Times' Strands puzzle on Friday sent players into the woods for a seasonal theme fitting early November. The answers covered the natural debris that collects beneath trees in autumn.

Strands No. 978, for Nov. 6, 2026, has the theme "Autumn walk in the woods." There are eight theme words to find, including the spangram.

Hints come first, followed by the full answers.

How Strands works

In Strands, players connect adjacent letters on a grid to find words that match a daily theme. The spangram describes the puzzle's theme and touches two opposite sides of the board, it may be two words, and it highlights in yellow when found. Every letter on the board is used exactly once.

Players who get stuck can earn hints by finding non-theme words. Words that count toward hints today include SHORE, GROSS, SLAVE, PENCE, VALE, CHART, FLAT and FATAL.

Theme hints

The theme points straight to the ground beneath your feet. Parade noted the answers are natural things you might find scattered beneath trees in a wooded area, from fallen leaves and twigs to acorns and pinecones.

For a stronger nudge, here are the first two letters of each answer. They are HU, MO, TW, BR, AC, PI and LE, with FO starting the spangram.

Spangram hints

The spangram has 11 letters, starting with F and ending with R. It is made of two words, with letter counts of 6 and 5.

The direction is also a useful clue. The spangram starts in the top-left corner of the board and ends on the bottom edge. Parade describes it as mostly vertical.

Today's Strands answers

Spoiler warning: the full solutions follow.

The answers are HUSK, MOSS, TWIG, BRANCH, ACORN, PINECONE and LEAVES, and the spangram is FORESTFLOOR.

The spangram, FOREST FLOOR, names the layer of fallen organic matter that covers the ground in wooded areas, where each of the theme words can be found.

The trickiest word

One answer may cause a pause. Technobezz picked HUSK as the word most likely to trip players up, because its meaning as a protective wrapper feels less obviously tied to a woodland walk than the other answers.

The other words fit the theme more directly. Leaves, twigs and branches fall from trees, acorns and pinecones carry the seeds of oaks and conifers, and moss covers the damp soil, rocks and logs of the forest floor.

Strategy tips

The spangram is often the key to Strands. Finding FORESTFLOOR early opens up the rest of the board, since the long two-word answer cuts across the grid and splits it into smaller sections.

Longer words such as PINECONE also help, because they use many letters at once and leave fewer combinations to sort through. Shorter answers like MOSS, TWIG and HUSK are easiest to spot once the larger words are in place.

About the game

Strands is one of The New York Times' daily word games, alongside Wordle, Connections and the Mini Crossword. A new puzzle appears at midnight in each player's time zone.

Strands No. 979 arrives Saturday.