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NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Wednesday, October 9 (game #220)

Reporters Desk

October 9, 2024

NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background

(Image credit: New York Times)

Jump To:

Hint #1: Today’s theme
Hint #2: Clue words
Hint #3: Spangram
Hint #4: Spangram position
Today’s answers
Yesterday’s answers

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today, NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Strands expert

Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief and has been obsessed with Wordle and its ilk for more than two years. He’s authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar, including a daily today’s Wordle answer column and a detailed analysis of the most common letters in Wordle in every position. He’s also played every Wordle ever and only lost once and yes, he takes it all too seriously.

NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Full house

NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #2 – clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

BIFF
FRAME
ITCH
PANT
ROLL
DUST

NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

• Where the heart is

NYT Strands today (game #220) – hint #4 – spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?

First: right, 5th row

Last: left, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #220) – the answers

NYT Strands answers for game 220 on a blue background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Strands, game #220, are…

HALL
OFFICE
STUDY
KITCHEN
LIBRARY
PANTRY
FOYER
SPANGRAM: HOMEROOM

My rating: Moderate
My score: Perfect

Either the staff of the NYT live in far bigger houses than I do or they’re taking a few liberties with the answers here, because my home contains neither an OFFICE, LIBRARY, PANTRY or FOYER; I’m not an aristocrat… Still, the central theme of ‘rooms in a house’ is fair enough, were it not for the fact that the spangram is HOMEROOM, which is a different thing entirely.

Setting that aside, it’s not too tricky. The biggest problem is that so many rooms have the word, um, ROOM in them – meaning the likes of bedroom, bathroom, dining room etc were all ruled out. The challenge was therefore to think of rooms that don’t contain the actual word ‘room’, which took me a while.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Tuesday 8 October, game #219)

LOCK
PASSWORD
SAFE
BACKUP
FIREWALL
ENCRYPTION
SPANGRAM: SECURITY

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.

Marc is TechRadar’s Global Editor in Chief, the latest in a long line of senior editorial roles he’s held in a career that started the week that Google launched (nice of them to mark the occasion). Prior to joining TR, he was UK Editor in Chief on Tom’s Guide, where he oversaw all gaming, streaming, audio, TV, entertainment, how-to and cameras coverage. He’s also a former editor of the tech website Stuff and spent five years at the music magazine NME, where his duties mainly involved spoiling other people’s fun. He’s based in London, and has tested and written about phones, tablets, wearables, streaming boxes, smart home devices, Bluetooth speakers, headphones, games, TVs, cameras and pretty much every other type of gadget you can think of. An avid photographer, Marc likes nothing better than taking pictures of very small things (bugs, his daughters) or very big things (distant galaxies). He also enjoys live music, gaming, cycling, and beating Wordle (he authors the daily Wordle today page).