Today’s NIT Strands Tips, Answers & Help for December 11, #283

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Here’s mine Strands confession of the day. Sometimes, even after getting the letters of some of the answers, I am completely confused. I can’t decipher them. I had a few of those in today’s responses. Usually, if it’s a subject I know very well, I can see the word in the letters, but today was not one of those days. Although — hint, hint — in the seventh grade I went to a wood shop and made a very nice trinket box that I still have today. I also got an A minus. But enough about me, let’s look at the Strands answers for today.

Also, I go into depth about Fr rules for Strands in this story.

If you are looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NIT puzzle tips page.

Read more: NIT Connections turns 1: These are the 5 hardest puzzles so far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands topic is: Board certified.

If that doesn’t help, here’s a clue: sawdust time.

Words to unlock hints in the game

Your goal is to find the hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you are stuck, find all the words you can. Each time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any four or more letter words you find will work:

• NOEL, SONE, MRS, DEW, GRASS, DILL, SHINE, WIRE, LODE, LATE, PRICE, PRICES, WELD, WEAR, SWEAR, CHEESE, RENT, THIS, WORK, SORE, PLAN.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers related to the topic. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that runs from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you have them all (originally I thought there were always eight, but I learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the non-spangram responses:

• HANGER, DRILL, LATHE, PLANE, CHISEL, INSERT BODIES, GRINDER

Today’s strand spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is WOOD PROCESSING. To find it, start with the V that is three letters above and three rows down from the leftmost row, then wrap around and down.