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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe March 25, 2026 NYT Strands puzzle, themed “Intermission Mission,” has the spangram CONCESSIONS and seven theme words: BEER, CANDY, FRIES, POPCORN, PRETZEL, SODA and WATER. The theme points to what people buy at the theater counter during a performance break. If you only want a nudge, skip to the hint section below; if you want the full solution, the complete list follows.
A spoiler-light hint
Think about the snack bar, not the stage. The theme asks what you would buy during intermission at a movie theater or live show. Once you find the category, the spangram should be easy to spot, and the rest of the theme words fall into the same family of food and drink.
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Full answers for March 25, 2026
Spangram and theme words for today’s puzzle:
- Spangram: CONCESSIONS, the category that connects the answer words
- Theme words: BEER, CANDY, FRIES, POPCORN, PRETZEL, SODA, WATER
Several independent answer pages published for the puzzle agree on this same spangram and seven-word list, so the theme itself is well corroborated. Puzzle archives sometimes number games differently, so use the date and theme, not an archive sequence number, to confirm you are looking at the right puzzle. Forbes and Yahoo/Mashable identify this one as game #752.
How the spangram fits the theme
The spangram is the long word that runs across the board and names the category. In this puzzle, CONCESSIONS is the umbrella term for everything the seven theme words describe. Each word is a single item a patron could buy from a concession stand: a drink, a snack, or a sweet. Finding CONCESSIONS first usually makes the remaining words faster to pick out, because you are looking for food and drink rather than any word that happens to fit the grid.
#1 Best Overall
Puzzle rules that apply to this game
The rules below are as quoted in secondary coverage of NYT Strands, not taken from an official rules page, so check the in-game instructions if a detail matters to you.
- The board is a 6-by-8 grid.
- You form words by connecting adjacent letters.
- Theme words fill the board without overlapping.
- The spangram touches opposite sides of the grid.
- Finding three non-theme words earns an in-game hint.
About theme types
Coverage of the rules also quotes The New York Times on the kinds of themes the game uses: “Some themes are fill-in-the-blank phrases. They may also be steps in a process, items that all belong to the same category, synonyms or homophones.” Today’s theme falls into the category type, where every answer belongs to one group of items. The quote is attributed to the Times without a named individual author.
Rank #2
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Common questions behind this puzzle
Readers searching for this puzzle usually want one of two things: a hint to keep solving on their own, or the full answer list to check their work. The sections above cover both, so you can stop at the hint or continue to the complete list.
Quick Recap
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Rank #3
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