shell company strands
Definition
A themed puzzle in the New York Times' Strands word game (puzzle #775, April 17, 2026), where players find words related to shell-dwelling marine mollusks like clam, oyster, scallop, mussel, abalone, conch, limpet, and the spangram 'mollusk' hidden in a word grid.
Humorously, a 'corporation' of shelled sea creatures assembled for linguistic beachcombing in a daily brain-teaser.
Examples
After staring at the grid for ages, I finally pieced together the shell company strands and felt like a crossword conch artist.
My roommate spoiled the shell company strands for me, but I still pretended to discover each mollusk on my own.
The shell company strands puzzle had us all clamming up in frustration until abalone clicked into place.
Beach bums unite: today's shell company strands is serving up oyster-riffic wordplay straight from the ocean grid.