If you found yourself scratching your head a little longer than usual on today’s NYT Strands puzzle, you weren’t alone. Sunday’s edition (April 13, 2025) tossed logic aside and leaned into some classic wordplay fun, using a theme that might’ve felt more like a joke than a clue: “Orange door hinge.”
Sounds absurd? That’s the point.
Let’s break down today’s quirky theme, the spangram that tied it all together, and the answers that gave solvers both satisfaction and a headache.
First off—What Even Is Strands?
For the uninitiated, Strands is one of the latest word games added to The New York Times’ growing puzzle lineup. Think of it as a word search with a twist: every puzzle comes with a mystery theme, and your job is to uncover a list of hidden words that tie back to it. Some of them are obvious. Some? Not so much.
You earn clues as you go—every time you find three valid words (at least four letters each), one theme word gets revealed. And somewhere on that grid is a “spangram”—a longer word that stretches across two sides and embodies the puzzle’s main idea.
Today’s Theme: “Orange Door Hinge”
At first glance, today’s theme might’ve seemed like nonsense. And technically, it kind of was.
Here’s the deal: the phrase “orange door hinge” is a long-standing joke in the world of rhymes. “Orange” is famously impossible to rhyme with—there’s no perfect match in the English language. And that little fact? It inspired today’s entire puzzle.
Instead of looking for colors, solvers had to find words that rhymed with colors. A curveball, for sure. But once you caught the rhythm, things started clicking into place.
The Spangram: COLORRHYMES
Once you managed to unlock this 12-letter spangram, everything made sense. “COLORRHYMES” was the thread that tied it all together—literally and figuratively.
The goal wasn’t to find red, blue, or green—it was to find words that sounded like those colors. Phonics over visuals. A neat twist, right?
Here Are All the Theme Words (and Their Rhyming Colors)
Let’s get to the part you probably came here for. Here’s the full list of theme words, along with which color each one rhymes with:
- Flew — rhymes with blue
- Queen — rhymes with green
- Hello — rhymes with yellow
- Pilot — rhymes with violet
- Height — rhymes with white
- Plaque — rhymes with black
- Spread — rhymes with red
Spangram: COLORRHYMES
Some are perfect rhymes. Others? A bit of a stretch. (We see you, pilot and violet.) But hey, that’s part of the fun.
How People Reacted
Scrolling through social media this morning, it was clear, today’s puzzle had folks stumped at first. “I was looking for red for like 10 minutes,” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter). Another joked, “My brain: find the colors. NYT, nah, just rhyme ‘em.”
But once the rhyme trick was discovered, players started breezing through the board—and appreciating the cleverness behind it. It was a nice shift from the usual literal approach.
A Few Tips If You’re New to Strands
If this was your first time getting bamboozled by a punny puzzle, don’t worry—it happens to all of us. Here are a few tricks that help:
- Build basic words first. They don’t have to relate to the theme—just find valid 4-letter words. Every three you get will unlock a theme word.
- Say things out loud. When rhyme is involved, hearing the words can help connect the dots faster.
- Use the shuffle. Seriously, don’t be afraid to hit that button. A fresh grid layout can make a world of difference.
What’s Next?
The best part? You don’t have to wait long for another shot. NYT releases a new Strands puzzle every day, and if today was anything to go by, we’re in for more creative curveballs ahead.
Whether you nailed this one early or had to brute-force your way through, Sunday’s Strands definitely reminded us why we love word games—they’re not just tests of vocabulary, but of perspective.
So, sharpen your mind, maybe brush up on your rhymes, and come back tomorrow for a brand-new challenge. Just don’t expect it to be straightforward—this is Strands, after all.
Don’t forget to checkout our Mario Kart World Announced for Nintendo Switch 2, Why The Elder Scrolls VI Is Taking So Long – And Why That’s Actually a Good Thing, Ubisoft’s New Rainbow Six Game Is Reportedly turn-based game and That’s Honestly Pretty Cool for more fun gaming.
