Daily Strands guide with theme hints, gameplay tips, and today’s clue breakdown to help you solve the NYT word-find puzzle! (Spoilers optional.)

Some of these word games are challenging while others are more casual.

Fans of word games have something to celebrate in 2026: the recent launch of Crossplay, a new puzzle from NYT Games. Similar to Scrabble and Words With Friends, this two-player match-up allows you to play against friends and family (competing against strangers or a computer are also options),

The Games team recently launched its first two-player game, Crossplay, on a new app for iOS and Android devices. The gameplay is reminiscent of Scrabble or Bananagrams: Players take turns adding letter tiles on a shared game board to create new words or build off others.

On Groundhog Day, Wordle Started Reusing Words With an Iconic Repeat Answer

In recent weeks, a web-based word puzzle called Wordle has become a popular daily distraction. Suddenly, millions of people are focused on their vocabulary of five-letter words, and are newly aware of concepts like letter frequency and letter position as ...

Use the arrow keys to move your cursor and type to input letters. Only click “submit” when you have all of your guesses ready! Each line on the puzzle can accommodate one word. Words may be between three and five letters long, and may begin anywhere on the line.

It doesn’t feel like long ago that word games and puzzles were the reserve of grandparents or people with time on their hands.

Pope Leo XIV, who plays the daily online puzzle Wordle, is not the only papal puzzle lover. His predecessor and namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was also passionate about wordplay, anonymously publishing riddles in Latin.