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

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.

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

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.