NYT Strands puzzle #671 for Saturday, January 3, 2026, has the theme “I’ve never seen that before!” The spangram is BREAKNEWGROUND; the five theme words are FRESH, INVENTIVE, NOVEL, ORIGINAL and SEMINAL. Hints appear below the answer list if you want to try the puzzle first.
Hints for Strands #671
The theme hint is “Not the old stuff.” If you want a smaller nudge before seeing the solutions, the entries begin with these letters, in order:
- SE
- NO
- FR
- IN
- OR
- BR (spangram)
The spangram follows a mixture of vertical and horizontal paths across the board.
NYT Strands answers for January 3, 2026
The five theme words are FRESH, INVENTIVE, NOVEL, ORIGINAL and SEMINAL. The spangram is BREAKNEWGROUND.
Recommended Free Tools
The date-specific answer lists agree on these solutions: Try Hard Guides and Parade.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Strands hints and spangrams work
Strands is a themed word-search puzzle. Find words related to the theme to fill the board. The spangram describes the theme, touches two opposite sides of the board, and can consist of two words. For this puzzle, the spangram is written as BREAKNEWGROUND.
Finding three non-theme words earns a hint. A hint reveals the letters of a theme word; if a hint is already active, the next one shows the order of that word’s letters. These rules are summarized from NYT instructions reproduced by Parade.
Quick Recap
Rank #3
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