Ever woken up, grabbed your coffee, and realized your brain just isn't "braining" yet? That’s basically the vibe for a lot of us hitting the NYT Strands hints July 18 search today. Honestly, this specific puzzle—number 502—is a bit of a curveball. It’s titled "Abracadabra!" and if you think that just means finding the word "magic" and calling it a day, you’re in for a surprise.
The thing about Strands is that it’s not just a word search. It’s a winding, twisting path of letters that can make you feel like a genius one second and totally lost the next. Today’s grid is particularly sneaky because the theme words aren't just nouns; they’re actions. They are things a magician does on stage, not just what they carry in their hat.
The July 18 Theme: Abracadabra!
Basically, you’re looking for things that happen in a high-end magic show. Think Penn & Teller or David Blaine. It’s not just "rabbit" or "hat." The New York Times went a bit deeper with the vocabulary here.
You’ve got a board that looks like a mess of letters, but there is a logic. If you're stuck, try looking for the letter 'V' or 'X'—those rare characters usually act as anchors for the bigger words. For this July 18 game, the words are quite long. We are talking six, eight, even nine letters.
Looking for the Spangram?
The spangram is the "big boss" of the puzzle. It touches two opposite sides of the board and perfectly summarizes everything. For July 18, the spangram is ITSMAGIC.
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Finding it is half the battle. It usually splits the board into two sections, making the remaining words much easier to isolate. In this case, it winds vertically through the middle. If you can spot that "ITS" and "MAGIC" connection, the rest of the board starts to make way more sense.
Today’s Word List and Hints
If you are just looking for a nudge without ruining the whole thing, here are some nudges. The words today describe transformation and mystery.
- ESCAPE: A classic trope where the magician gets out of a tank or chains.
- LEVITATE: Floating in mid-air. Look for the 'V'.
- MULTIPLY: Making one coin turn into ten.
- DISAPPEAR: The "now you see it, now you don't" moment.
- TRANSFORM: Changing one object into another.
Most people get stuck on TRANSFORM. It’s a long word, and it snakes around the grid in a way that feels unnatural. But once you see it? You can't unsee it.
Why Strands Feels Different Today
Strands is the newest member of the NYT Games family, following the massive success of Wordle and Connections. While Wordle is about deduction and Connections is about categories, Strands is about spatial awareness.
You have to see the words as shapes.
Today’s puzzle is rated "Hard" by many in the community because the words overlap in a very tight "S" pattern. If you’re coming from a traditional word search background, your brain wants to look in straight lines. Don't do that. You’ve got to be willing to turn a corner mid-word.
Quick Tips for Solving
- Corners first. Start at the four corners. Letters there have the fewest possible connections, so they are often the start or end of a word.
- Look for suffixes. Common endings like "-ing," "-tion," or "-ate" (like in Levitate) are easy to spot.
- Don't fear the Hint button. Look, no one is judging. If you find three non-theme words (four letters or more), you get a hint. Use it to unblock your brain.
Practical Steps to Master Strands
If you want to get better at this game so you don't need to look up NYT Strands hints July 18 every single morning, start practicing "cluster searching." Instead of looking for a word, look for three letters that must go together, like "STR" or "ENT."
Check the "Sidekick" forum on the NYT site too. It’s a goldmine for strategy. Most experts there suggest finding the spangram within the first three minutes to prevent the grid from becoming overwhelming.
The most important thing to remember for the July 18 puzzle is that every single letter on the board must be used. If you have three letters left over at the end, you’ve made a mistake somewhere and need to backtrack.
Go back to the board and look for the 'M' in MULTIPLY. It’s often the letter that people miss because it sits right near the edge. Once you clear that, the rest of the magic act will reveal itself.