Strands Hint

#328Saturday, January 25, 2025

Strands answers for January 25, 2025 — “Seeing double” (#328)

The NYT Strands spangram for January 25, 2025 (puzzle #328) is LETTERS, a 7-letter answer to the theme "Seeing double". The 5 theme words are BALLOON, COFFEE, COMMITTEE, SUCCEED and WHIPPOORWILL.

BALLOONCOFFEECOMMITTEESUCCEEDWHIPPOORWILLLETTERS

Where is each answer on the January 25 Strands board?

Here are all 5 theme words from the January 25, 2025 Strands puzzle, with the spangram last.

The table gives the start square, end square and travel direction of all 6 answers. Every position comes from solving the grid outright — the answers have to tile all 48 letters with no overlap and no remainder, which is what makes a single arrangement provable.

Verified board positions, Strands puzzle #328
AnswerLettersStartsEndsDirection
BALLOON7row 6, column 3row 8, column 6diagonally across the grid
COFFEE6row 5, column 2row 8, column 1top to bottom
COMMITTEE9row 3, column 5row 2, column 6diagonally across the grid
SUCCEED7row 7, column 3row 8, column 5diagonally across the grid
WHIPPOORWILL12row 4, column 4row 2, column 1diagonally across the grid
LETTERS7row 5, column 1row 5, column 6left to right

What did the January 25 Strands grid look like?

Every letter below appears in exactly one answer — the 6 words tile all 48 cells of the January 25, 2025 grid.

LIWRTELOOTMEPIHICMPETWROLCTELSOFBALOFESEEOEUCCDN

Spangram — 7 letters5 theme words

Each line traces one answer through the letters it uses; the heavier yellow line is the spangram.

Read across the grid, row 1 reads L-I-W-R-T-E, row 2 reads L-O-O-T-M-E, row 3 reads P-I-H-I-C-M, row 4 reads P-E-T-W-R-O, row 5 reads L-C-T-E-L-S, row 6 reads O-F-B-A-L-O, row 7 reads F-E-S-E-E-O, and row 8 reads E-U-C-C-D-N.

How hard was the January 25 Strands puzzle?

Measured against the full archive, the January 25, 2025 puzzle lands in the hard range — above 98% of all Strands puzzles.

Difficulty
98
percentile, hard
Path turns
32
direction changes
Decoy words
807
non-theme words accepted
Mean answer
8.2
letters per theme word

Easiest puzzle ever published on the left, hardest on the right. The formula behind the score, and the ranked list of every puzzle, are on the Strands difficulty index.

Who made the January 25 Strands puzzle?

Strands puzzle #328 was edited by Tracy Bennett and constructed by Christina Iverson. Output across the whole run is broken down on who makes NYT Strands.

Common questions about the January 25 Strands puzzle

What was the clue for Strands on January 25, 2025?

The Strands clue for January 25, 2025 is “Seeing double”, on puzzle #328. It is answered by the spangram LETTERS, and all 5 theme words that day belong to that idea.

What were the Strands words on January 25, 2025?

The 5 Strands theme words for January 25, 2025 are BALLOON, COFFEE, COMMITTEE, SUCCEED and WHIPPOORWILL, plus the spangram LETTERS.

What was the big word in the January 25, 2025 Strands?

The big word — the spangram — for January 25, 2025 is LETTERS, 7 letters long, running from row 5, column 1 to row 5, column 6. It is the one word that touches two opposite sides of the board and states the theme outright.

What did the Strands theme “Seeing double” mean?

The Strands theme “Seeing double” for January 25, 2025 means LETTERS — that is what the spangram spells, and every one of the 5 theme words is an example of it.

How many theme words are in Strands January 25, 2025?

Strands puzzle #328 has 5 theme words plus one spangram, and together they use all 48 letters on the board exactly once.

How difficult was the January 25, 2025 Strands puzzle?

Strands #328 rates hard on a computed index, harder than 98% of every Strands puzzle published since March 2024.

What number was the Strands puzzle on January 25, 2025?

The Strands puzzle published on Saturday, January 25, 2025 is #328, counting from the game's launch on March 4, 2024.


Today’s puzzle and its hint ladder are on the front page. This puzzle sits in January 2025, part of the full Strands archive.