Strands Hint

#406Sunday, April 13, 2025

Strands answers for April 13, 2025 — “Orange door hinge” (#406)

The NYT Strands spangram for April 13, 2025 (puzzle #406) is COLORRHYMES, a 11-letter answer to the theme "Orange door hinge". The 7 theme words are FLEW, HEIGHT, HELLO, PILOT, PLAQUE, QUEEN and SPREAD.

FLEWHEIGHTHELLOPILOTPLAQUEQUEENSPREADCOLORRHYMES

Where is each answer on the April 13 Strands board?

Strands #406 resolves to these 7 theme words plus the spangram COLORRHYMES.

The table gives the start square, end square and travel direction of all 8 answers. Every position comes from solving the grid outright — the answers have to tile all 48 letters with no overlap and no remainder, which is what makes a single arrangement provable.

Verified board positions, Strands puzzle #406
AnswerLettersStartsEndsDirection
FLEW4row 7, column 5row 7, column 4diagonally across the grid
HEIGHT6row 7, column 6row 4, column 6bottom to top
HELLO5row 2, column 2row 1, column 4diagonally across the grid
PILOT5row 8, column 3row 6, column 2diagonally across the grid
PLAQUE6row 4, column 3row 7, column 1diagonally across the grid
QUEEN5row 2, column 4row 2, column 1right to left
SPREAD6row 2, column 5row 3, column 6diagonally across the grid
COLORRHYMES11row 4, column 1row 8, column 6diagonally across the grid

What did the April 13 Strands grid look like?

The grid below is six letters wide and eight rows deep, with every answer traced through the letters it uses.

ELLOPRNHUQSEEELOADCOPRHTQALRGIUTHELEEOYWFHLIPMES

Spangram — 11 letters7 theme words

Each line traces one answer through the letters it uses; the heavier yellow line is the spangram.

Read across the grid, row 1 reads E-L-L-O-P-R, row 2 reads N-H-U-Q-S-E, row 3 reads E-E-L-O-A-D, row 4 reads C-O-P-R-H-T, row 5 reads Q-A-L-R-G-I, row 6 reads U-T-H-E-L-E, row 7 reads E-O-Y-W-F-H, and row 8 reads L-I-P-M-E-S.

How hard was the April 13 Strands puzzle?

The difficulty index rates puzzle #406 as above average: it sits at the 66th percentile of every Strands grid to date.

Difficulty
66
percentile, above average
Path turns
24
direction changes
Decoy words
498
non-theme words accepted
Mean answer
5.3
letters per theme word

Easiest puzzle ever published on the left, hardest on the right. The formula behind the score, and the ranked list of every puzzle, are on the Strands difficulty index.

Who made the April 13 Strands puzzle?

Strands puzzle #406 was edited by Tracy Bennett and constructed by Christina Iverson. Output across the whole run is broken down on who makes NYT Strands.

Common questions about the April 13 Strands puzzle

What was the clue for Strands on April 13, 2025?

The Strands clue for April 13, 2025 is “Orange door hinge”, on puzzle #406. It is answered by the spangram COLORRHYMES, and all 7 theme words that day belong to that idea.

What were the Strands words on April 13, 2025?

The 7 Strands theme words for April 13, 2025 are FLEW, HEIGHT, HELLO, PILOT, PLAQUE, QUEEN and SPREAD, plus the spangram COLORRHYMES.

What was the big word in the April 13, 2025 Strands?

The big word — the spangram — for April 13, 2025 is COLORRHYMES, 11 letters long, running from row 4, column 1 to row 8, column 6. It is the one word that touches two opposite sides of the board and states the theme outright.

What did the Strands theme “Orange door hinge” mean?

The Strands theme “Orange door hinge” for April 13, 2025 means COLORRHYMES — that is what the spangram spells, and every one of the 7 theme words is an example of it.

How many theme words are in Strands April 13, 2025?

Strands puzzle #406 has 7 theme words plus one spangram, and together they use all 48 letters on the board exactly once.

How difficult was the April 13, 2025 Strands puzzle?

Strands #406 rates above average on a computed index, harder than 66% of every Strands puzzle published since March 2024.

What number was the Strands puzzle on April 13, 2025?

The Strands puzzle published on Sunday, April 13, 2025 is #406, counting from the game's launch on March 4, 2024.


Today’s puzzle and its hint ladder are on the front page. This puzzle sits in April 2025, part of the full Strands archive.