‘Into the woods’ Strands NYT hints and answers for today (Aug. 25)

It’s time for a hiking trip for today’s New York Times Strands enthusiasts, and while this is one of the more straightforward puzzles of recent times, it might still trip you up if you are not careful in your travels.

Here is everything you need to know about the Aug. 25 edition of Strands, with some hints and answers you need to solve this word game puzzle.

‘Into the woods’ Strands Spangram hints and answer (Aug. 25)

• Hint 1: This is a short and simple Spangram, a single word with a logical relation to the clue. Nothing extraordinary.
• Hint 2: Where the wood things are.
• Hint 3: You really don’t see it from the trees?

Stop scrolling if you don’t want me to spoil the answer.

Aug. 25’s Spangram is “FOREST,” a straightforward fit with today’s “Into the woods” clue. It starts from the “F” in the fourth row of the left column and ends on the “T” in the sixth row of the right column. A short word readable from left to right, this is a fairly easy one to find.

If you are still not one hundred percent sure about what the clue and the Spangram are referring to, here’s the complete solution, with all the words listed below, plus a short summary of my solving process:

• FOREST (Spangram)
• CHESTNUT
• SYCAMORE
• BEECH
• GINKGO
• MAPLE
• WILLOW
• PINE

‘Into the woods’ Strands (Aug. 25) difficulty rating and solving process

This was a fairly straightforward solve with an easy clue, though it has to be said that some of the trees selected in the puzzle are on the more exotic side, and they can easily trip up non-native speakers.

To start, I tried to find a TR- start for TREES as part of a potential Spangram—failing that, I dove into the corners. PINE was a quick find and pretty much confirmed that I’m on the right track. I spent some time looking for LARCH because of Monty Python but I had to settle for BEECH instead. This was enough for me to finally spot the Spangram.

This split up the board in a helpful way, and I was able to zero in on CHESTNUT, then on GINGKO (which I only recognized from herbal supplements, but hey, good enough). This cleared up MAPLE and WILLOW, and while I did have to spend some time identifying SYCAMORE (which, per Bellarmine University, are “the largest deciduous trees in the Eastern United States” that can grow to 30 meters and live nearly 600 years).

An easy and fairly fun solve, with a two out of five difficulty in my estimation.

Here are some other word games for you to play today

The NYT Mini Crossword and today’s Spelling Bee are no-brainer choices for word games. The LA Times and the Washington Post also offer some popular crosswords that are worth checking out.