If you are looking for hints and answers for Strands for Monday, October 12, 2026, read on – I will share some hints and tips and finally the solution to the “So To Speak” themed puzzle. To easily return to our Strands tips every day, bookmark this page. You can also find our past clues there, in case you want to know what you missed in a previous puzzle. (If you play Wordle or Connections, check out our suggestions for those games, too.) Below I’ll give you some indirect hints about today’s Strands answers. And further down the page, I’ll reveal the spangram and the answers. Scroll slowly and follow only the suggestions you need! Credit: Strands/NYT Spangram Tip in Today’s Strands Puzzle Another word for “expression” or perhaps “idiom.” Suggestion for Theme Words in Today’s Strands Puzzle Terms for things that are not necessarily sensible or textbook-level language, but are commonly used variations or understood by most. WARNING: Spoilers for today’s Strands puzzle follow! We’re about to reveal the answers to today’s Strands riddle. What’s the spangram on the Strands today? Today’s spangram is TURNOFPHRASE. What are the theme words in today’s Strands? Today’s theme words are DIALECT, LINGO, VERNACULAR, JARGON, PARLANCE. This is what the board looks like when the puzzle is solved: Credit: Strands/NYT How I Solved Today’s Strands I wonder if this puzzle will include elements related to figurative language or perhaps metaphors and euphemisms. I see PHRASE across the center, but it is not a topic word. That must be part of the spangram. Yes, it starts at the bottom left: TURNOFPHRASE. 🟡PARLANCE is at the bottom right. 🔵 I’ve seen that word in the phrase “in common language,” which means “as it is commonly said.” JARGO is below the end of the spangram. 🔵VERNACULAR is under JERGA. 🔵 What do you think so far? LINGO is in the upper right corner. 🔵Finally, DIALECT. 🔵Strands #953 “So to speak” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵 How to Play Strands You can find the Strands game on the New York Times website and in the NYT Games app. When you start playing, you’ll see a game board with a variety of letters, flanked by a clue that gives a clue as to the theme of the board; It will be a phrase like “Better with age.” Your job is to find the hidden words within the board that reflect the theme of the puzzle. A crossword puzzle with a word search The most important word you need to find is “spangram,” a word that more explicitly states the theme of the puzzle. (For example, the puzzle spangram with the theme “Better with Age” is FERMENTED, which describes products that, as you may have guessed, get better with age.) The spangram will span the entire game board, whether from left to right or top to bottom (hence the name). When you find the spangram, it will be highlighted in yellow. Solving the spangram usually makes the rest of the puzzle much easier to complete. In Strands, words can travel in any direction (up, down, left, right, and diagonal) and you’ll only use each letter once. There is only one correct solution. When you correctly identify one of the puzzle words (for example, KOMBUCHA, MISO, or KIMCHI), it will be highlighted in blue. If you are having trouble solving the puzzle, you can submit any non-theme word you see (as long as it is four letters or more) to receive credit for a single clue. If you submit three non-thematic words, the “Hint” button will be clickable; If you click on it, all the letters of one of the words in the topic will be highlighted. You will still have to link these highlighted letters in the correct order to form one of the theme words. If there is already a clue on the board and you use another clue before solving that word, the order of the letters in that word will be revealed. How to Earn Strands Unlike Connections and Wordle, you can’t fail in Strands. When you submit guesses, you will correctly identify an answer, receive credit for a clue, or the text will move back and forth, indicating that the word you submitted is too short or invalid. You can’t run out of guesses and there is no time limit. You win when you have correctly used all the letters on the board, that is, you have identified the spangram and all the thematic words. Like other NYT games, when you solve the puzzle, you’ll see a shareable card indicating how you performed that day: the blue dots 🔵 indicate the topic words you found, the yellow dot 🟡 indicates when you found the spangram, and a light bulb 💡 indicates the words you received a clue for. Isn’t this the day you’re looking for? Here is the solution to Sunday’s Strands.
