Need help with today's NYT strand? Today's “crossword” theme is a lot of fun, but to find the spangram you need to know certain terms.

Below we have compiled a list of helpful hints and answers for #288 strand, if any. We'll start with a few tips and then work our way up to the full answer for #288.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strand #288.

The official theme of NYT Strands #288 is... “Words that Cross.”

And here's an unofficial hint from me: “The Meaning of Combinations.”

If you're still in the dark, here are a few useful words that will give you valuable hint tokens:

Still struggling? Spangram gives you a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with 'P' and ends with 'X'.

Scroll down to see what it is.

It's PORTMANTEAUX.

Now, what's the answer to today's Strand game #288?

Drumroll, please.

... Spangram was PORTMANTEAUX.

Strands #288

“Crossed words”

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Hello Strands fans! This was the most fun puzzle I've had in a long time! It's hard, but not too tedious (as long as you've heard the word spangram, that is).

The “crossed words” theme was a mystery in its own right, but when I saw the BRUNCH in the lower right corner, I realized it could only mean one thing. This was a PORTMANTEAUX, a puzzle in which two words combined meant one thing.

I found a spangram from top to bottom of the board, neatly separating the two. But as it turned out, the answer came relatively slowly: the SPORK was just above the BRUNCH, but it took me a while to find the SMOG in the middle on the left side.

That divided the left side into two distinct sections, and through trial and error I finally got the ZORSE at the top. Then I went back to the top right and realized that “leisure” was actually part of ATHLEISURE.

Finally, I went back to the bottom left to figure out what LKENAT was. Finally I deciphered it: it is ANKLET!

Are you reading in a later time zone than this? You can read the full article about Strand's solution to yesterday's Round 287 here.