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If you're reading this,Watch The Tax Collector Online you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.

Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for December 17 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for December 17

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: It's lit!

These words are types.

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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

The words describe literary genres.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is FictionGenre.

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NYT Strands word list for December 17

• Crime

• Fantasy

• Romance

• FictionGenre

• Western

• Historical

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games pagehas more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!

Check out our games hubfor Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Strands.

Topics Strands

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