Looking for help with today's NYT Strands puzzle? Here's an extra hint to help you uncover the right words, as well as all of today's answers and Spangram.

A Connections puzzle is the perfect wintery, December activity, especially with Newsweek here to help you through the tricky parts. The brainteaser was launched by The New York Times in June 2023 and has gone on to become the newspaper's second-most played game behind Wordle, another word-based puzzle.

The NYT Mini is a quick and dirty version of the newspaper's larger and long-running crossword. Most days, there are between three and five clues in each direction on a five by five grid, but the puzzles are sometimes larger, especially on Saturdays.