Lifehacker published hints and answers for Strands puzzle on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, with the theme “Earth Day.” The puzzle’s solution centered on verbs for environmentally conscious living and an umbrella term for the study and practice of preserving Earth’s natural resources.
Tim Mulkerin told readers, “If you’re looking for hints and answers for Strands for Wednesday, April 22, 2026, read on—I’ll share some clues and tips, and finally the solution to the puzzle with the theme “Earth Day.”” He also wrote, “We’re about to give away the answers to today’s Strands puzzle.”
The theme words were REDUCE, REUSE, REFILL, DONATE, REPAIR, and RECYCLE. In Strands, words can travel up, down, left, right, and diagonal, and each letter is used only once. When a player finds the spangram, it stretches across the full board from left to right or top to bottom and turns yellow. Correct theme words highlight blue.
The game, available on website and in the NYT Games app, cannot be failed and has no time limit. Players who submit three non-theme words of four letters or more make the Hint button clickable, and a hint then highlights the letters in one theme word. If a word is too short or invalid, the text shakes back and forth.
Mulkerin, who has worked in digital media and the tech world since 2016, has a bachelor's degree in art history and is pursuing a master's degree in communicative sciences and disorders at New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The appeal of the April 22 puzzle was simple: Earth Day gave the game an immediately readable frame, and the answer set matched it cleanly. For readers who wanted the solution, the clues were enough to finish the board quickly.
