Puzzle Overview
Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 950 on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026.
I got a kick out of today’s theme and of some of the loopy answers that resulted.
Hint for today’s Strands puzzle
Today’s Strands theme is “This can’t be right.”
And here’s a hint: Not buying that!
In-Game Hints
Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:
• SHAVE, HAVE, SLAVE, LAVE, DRONE, DEAR, READ, REAL, SEER, SOLE
Solutions and Spangram
These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them, every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:
• HOOEY, DRIVEL, RUBBISH, NONSENSE, BALDERDASH
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is UNBELIEVABLE. To find it, start with the U that’s three letters to the right on the bottom row, and wind up.
Puzzle Breakdown
I thought it was fairly easy to unscramble the words once I knew the theme we were looking for. Actually, the spangram for me was tougher than finding the clue words. I wonder if some solvers today don’t know the word “hooey,” which is a somewhat old-fashioned way to say nonsense, usually used as in “a load of hooey” or “a bunch of hooey.”
