NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #394 (Tuesday, April 1 2025)
Need help with Strands #394? Here are some hints and the answers

Need some assistance with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "It's a sign!" — isn't at all obvious, and it'll take the reveal of a few answers before its meaning becomes clear.
Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #394, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #394, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #394.
Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #394 is... "It's a sign!"
And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Changing seasons".
If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- MOOSE
- HERSE
- WOES
- BITES
- BREWS
- TILES
- BLIMP
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with S and ends with E.
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Scroll down to find out what it is...
It's SPRINGTIME.
Today's Strands answers
So, what are today's Strands answers for game #394?
Drumroll, please...
- PUDDLES
- BUDS
- SHOWERS
- BLOSSOMS
- POLLEN
- ROBINS
...and the spangram was SPRINGTIME.
Strands #394
“It's a sign!”
🔵💡🔵🔵
🟡🔵🔵🔵
Hi Strands fans. Today's puzzle was one of those tricky ones where I found my first answer by accident, but still ended up using a clue.
That said, I don't think the theme - "It's a sign!" - is especially helpful, so I'm not kicking myself too hard. In fact, I started off looking for star signs, but then accidentally found PUDDLES in the top-right corner.
That meant nothing to me, so I used a clue which revealed BUDS. I was still confused, but after a little lateral thinking, I figured it might be connected to the start of April. Sure enough, I saw SHOWERS and was away.
I got the spangram of SPRINGTIME, which wasn't that helpful at breaking things up, as it only isolated a word I'd already found. But that wasn't a big deal as I now knew the kind of thing I was in search of with my remaining answers.
BLOSSOMS was in the top-left corner, followed by the bain of my summer - POLLEN - in the bottom half of the grid. That just left ROBINS on the left-hand side to complete the puzzle.
Yesterday's Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #393 right here.
Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.
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