NYT Strands is the New York Times’s daily word-search/word-find style puzzle. Today’s theme — All aboard! — leaned into train travel vocabulary, mixing short, familiar words with a few longer station-style terms. The grid rewarded careful scanning and a good eye for overlapping travel phrases, all tied together by the spangram.

26 November 2025 NYT Strands Theme: “All aboard!”

This theme centered on passenger-rail vocabulary: think cars and accommodations on long-distance journeys. It felt nostalgic — familiar terms like coach and dining showed up alongside an observation-style word, while the spangram made the whole set read like a single train trip.

26 November 2025 NYT Strands: Hints

  • Think of different parts of a train and the services on board.
  • Look for short compartment words first — they’re often easiest to spot.
  • Scan row by row, then sweep diagonals; Strands hides many words at angles.
  • Expect both seating and sleeping terms — day and overnight travel are both represented.
  • Spangram ties the list together: it points to the broader Passenger Train theme.

26 November 2025 NYT Strands: Answers

  • quiet (a car or area designated for low noise)
  • coach (standard passenger seating)
  • dining (the onboard dining car or service)
  • sleeper (sleeping accommodations for overnight trips)
  • observation (an observation car or vantage point for scenery)

Spangram

PASSENGER TRAIN

The spangram 'PASSENGER TRAIN' uses every letter in the grid at least once, thematically linking all the travel-related words and pointing to long-distance rail travel as the puzzle’s focus for solvers.

How Strands works

Strands is a daily word search puzzle with a twist:
• You’re given a theme.
• The grid is packed with hidden words tied to that theme.
• Words can run in any direction, including diagonals.
• Once you find all the theme words, you’re done!

Each puzzle usually has around 5–8 theme words.

Tips to become a NYT Strands pro

  1. Start with obvious words. Look for clear connections to the theme first.
  2. Scan diagonals early. Strands loves to hide words at an angle.
  3. Build around found words. Once one word is cleared, the leftover letters often point to the next.
  4. Use hints wisely. Earn them steadily by spotting extra words, then save them for when you’re truly stuck.
  5. Think about synonyms. The theme clue isn’t always literal — broaden your thinking.

Final Thoughts

Today’s All aboard! puzzle played fair — enjoyable and moderately paced. The words were familiar enough to be satisfying but arranged cleverly, especially with the spangram nudging you toward the Passenger Train motif. How many did you find?