NYT Strands Answers October 2026: Every Spangram From #942 to #972

Strands published 31 puzzles in October 2026, from #942 on Thu., Oct. 1 to #972 on Sat., Oct. 31, and every spangram and theme word is listed below from The New York Times (NYT) puzzle data. Tracy Bennett edited all of them. The first spangram was Beyond repair and the last was Trick or treat. This page gives away every answer, so stop here if you still have a puzzle to solve.

What were all the Strands spangrams in October 2026?

Date	Day	Puzzle	Clue	Spangram
Oct. 1	Thu.	#942	Things fall apart	Beyond repair
Oct. 2	Fri.	#943	On the sly …	Sneaking around
Oct. 3	Sat.	#944	A figment of your imagination	Will-o’-the-wisp
Oct. 4	Sun.	#945	Grab your tokens	Arcade games
Oct. 5	Mon.	#946	Oh well, too bad, such a shame	Sad trombone
Oct. 6	Tue.	#947	Changing course	The old switcheroo
Oct. 7	Wed.	#948	Color for the cure	Tickled pink
Oct. 8	Thu.	#949	A star is born	Luminary
Oct. 9	Fri.	#950	That can’t be right	Unbelievable
Oct. 10	Sat.	#951	A slow drizzle	Sticky and sweet
Oct. 11	Sun.	#952	They don’t make ‘em like they used to	Old-fashioned
Oct. 12	Mon.	#953	In a manner of speaking	Turn of phrase
Oct. 13	Tue.	#954	Well, this is awkward	Cringeworthy
Oct. 14	Wed.	#955	Folk & fairy tale twosomes	Once upon a time
Oct. 15	Thu.	#956	Sailor’s guide	Lighthouse
Oct. 16	Fri.	#957	Just a little bit	Small world
Oct. 17	Sat.	#958	Quite the crush	Fall in love
Oct. 18	Sun.	#959	Fast fashion	Running gear
Oct. 19	Mon.	#960	It’s all Greek to me	Mythological
Oct. 20	Tue.	#961	🦆🦆 … 🪿	Duck duck goose
Oct. 21	Wed.	#962	On a higher level	In the attic
Oct. 22	Thu.	#963	Any relation?	Family ties
Oct. 23	Fri.	#964	None of your beeswax!	Busybody
Oct. 24	Sat.	#965	Re-fresh-ing	Laundry day
Oct. 25	Sun.	#966	Something to build on	Foundations
Oct. 26	Mon.	#967	Please, be my guest!	Hospitality
Oct. 27	Tue.	#968	Who ya gonna call?	Exterminator
Oct. 28	Wed.	#969	Comedy club	Funny business
Oct. 29	Thu.	#970	Double, double toil and trouble	Cauldron
Oct. 30	Fri.	#971	All charged up	Plugged in
Oct. 31	Sat.	#972	It’s in the bag	Trick or treat

Source: The New York Times, Strands, puzzle data for Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2026. Spangrams are shown as words; the puzzle itself runs them together. Several late-month days have their own hint pages: Oct. 21, Oct. 25, Oct. 26, Oct. 27, Oct. 28, Oct. 29, Oct. 30, Oct. 31. For earlier and later puzzles, see the Strands hub.

What were the theme words for each day?

The table lists the theme words for each puzzle in alphabetical order, with the number of words in brackets. The spangram is not counted among them.

Date	Puzzle	Theme words
Oct. 1	#942	Break, Collapse, Crumble, Dissolve, Fragment (5)
Oct. 2	#943	Covert, Devious, Furtive, Shifty, Stealthy (5)
Oct. 3	#944	Chimera, Illusion, Mirage, Phantasm, Specter (5)
Oct. 4	#945	Asteroids, Centipede, Frogger, Pong, Scramble (5)
Oct. 5	#946	Alas, Boohoo, Bummer, Sorry, Sucks, Unfortunate (6)
Oct. 6	#947	Backpedal, Flip, Overturn, Reverse, Undo (5)
Oct. 7	#948	Barbie, Bubblegum, Flamingo, Quartz, Shocking (5)
Oct. 8	#949	Acclaim, Celebrity, Eminence, Fame, Renown, Repute (6)
Oct. 9	#950	Balderdash, Drivel, Hooey, Nonsense, Rubbish (5)
Oct. 10	#951	Grenadine, Honey, Molasses, Syrup, Treacle (5)
Oct. 11	#952	Icebox, Inkwell, Pager, Telegram, Typewriter (5)
Oct. 12	#953	Dialect, Jargon, Lingo, Parlance, Vernacular (5)
Oct. 13	#954	Appall, Chagrin, Embarrass, Mortify, Nonplus (5)
Oct. 14	#955	Beast, Beauty, Frog, Hare, Princess, Tortoise (6)
Oct. 15	#956	Beacon, Dome, Gallery, Lantern, Staircase, Tower (6)
Oct. 16	#957	Amoeba, Atom, Follicle, Mite, Molecule, Pinpoint (6)
Oct. 17	#958	Babble, Blush, Fidget, Giggle, Perspire, Stumble (6)
Oct. 18	#959	Headphones, Sneakers, Sunglasses, Vest, Watch (5)
Oct. 19	#960	Deity, Dryad, Fates, Furies, Muses, Nymph, Satyr (7)
Oct. 20	#961	Chase, Circle, Game, Playground, Select, Walk (6)
Oct. 21	#962	Boxes, Decorations, Luggage, Trunks, Yearbooks (5)
Oct. 22	#963	Ancestors, Blood, Brethren, Kinfolk, Offspring (5)
Oct. 23	#964	Eavesdropping, Inquisitive, Nosy, Prying, Snoopy (5)
Oct. 24	#965	Basket, Detergent, Dryer, Iron, Rack, Sink, Washer (7)
Oct. 25	#966	Framework, Scaffolding, Skeleton, Structure (4)
Oct. 26	#967	Entertain, Host, Invite, Meet, Receive, Welcome (6)
Oct. 27	#968	Ants, Cockroaches, Mice, Rats, Termites, Ticks (6)
Oct. 28	#969	Burlesque, Farce, Improv, Sketch, Slapstick (5)
Oct. 29	#970	Blood, Bubble, Fire, Lizard, Newt, Snake, Tongue, Worm (8)
Oct. 30	#971	Current, Electricity, Energy, Juice, Power, Spark (6)
Oct. 31	#972	Apple, Candy, Fangs, Ring, Sticker, Toothbrush (6)

Who built the October 2026 Strands puzzles?

The puzzle data names a constructor and an editor for each day. Tracy Bennett is the editor on all 31. Six people are credited as constructors:

Constructor	Puzzles	Dates	Average theme words
Tracy Bennett	15	15 days across the month	5.3
Christina Iverson	10	10 days across the month	5.7
Jen Scheerer	3	Oct. 11, Oct. 20, Oct. 29	6.3
Sam Corbin	1	Oct. 9	5.0
Tayonna Jenkins	1	Oct. 16	6.0
Joanne Song	1	Oct. 18	5.0

Tracy Bennett built 15 puzzles and Christina Iverson 10. Jen Scheerer built three (Oct. 11, 20 and 29), and Sam Corbin, Tayonna Jenkins and Joanne Song one each. With only three puzzles, Scheerer’s average of 6.3 theme words is a small sample, but it includes the eight-word Cauldron puzzle.

How many theme words did each puzzle have?

The 31 puzzles hid 172 theme words in total, an average of 5.5 per puzzle. Only one word repeated across the month: Blood appeared in Family ties (Oct. 22) and Cauldron (Oct. 29).

Theme words	Puzzles	Share of the month
4	1	3%
5	16	52%
6	11	35%
7	2	6%
8	1	3%

Five and six were the most common counts: 27 of the 31 puzzles had one or the other. The smallest was Foundations (#966, Sun., Oct. 25) with four words: Framework, Scaffolding, Skeleton and Structure. The largest was Cauldron (#970, Thu., Oct. 29) with eight.

Which spangram was the longest?

The old switcheroo (#947, Tue., Oct. 6) ran 16 letters, the longest of the month. Sneaking around (#943, Fri., Oct. 2) and Sticky and sweet (#951, Sat., Oct. 10) followed at 14 letters each. The shortest were Luminary (#949), Busybody (#964) and Cauldron (#970), at 8 letters each. The average spangram was 11.3 letters, and none was shorter than 8.

Which puzzles fit Halloween week?

Two spangrams in the last week name Halloween imagery directly. Cauldron (#970, Thu., Oct. 29) came with the clue ‘Double, double toil and trouble’ and theme words including Newt, Lizard, Snake and Worm. Trick or treat (#972, Sat., Oct. 31) closed the month with the clue ‘It’s in the bag’ and the words Candy, Apple, Fangs, Ring, Sticker and Toothbrush. The other five puzzles from Oct. 25 to Oct. 31 had spangrams on other subjects: Foundations, Hospitality, Exterminator, Funny business and Plugged in.

What did the clues look like?

Deciding which clues are puns is a matter of opinion, so we counted only what the data shows. Six of the 31 clues carried a question mark, an exclamation mark or an ellipsis: ‘Any relation?’ and ‘Who ya gonna call?’, ‘None of your beeswax!’ and ‘Please, be my guest!’, and ‘On the sly …’ and the duck-and-goose emoji clue on Oct. 20. The other 25 had none of those marks. The Oct. 20 clue used emoji instead of words.

What this tells you for November

These are patterns in last month’s puzzles, not a forecast of any answer. They can still shape how you play.

• Plan for five or six theme words. 27 of 31 puzzles had one of those two counts, and only three had seven or more.
• Expect a long spangram. Every spangram had at least 8 letters, and 15 of the 31 had 12 or more.
• Read the punctuation in the clue. Six clues carried a question mark, an exclamation mark or an ellipsis, so a marked clue is worth a second look before you search for words.
• Do not skip a word because you saw it before. Of 172 theme words, only Blood came up twice, so repeats between puzzles were rare.

Mark your own streak on the November 2026 printable calendar, and keep this month’s record on the October 2026 printable calendar.

Printable list of the October 2026 spangrams

The printable sheet lists every date, puzzle number and spangram on one page, so you can check a missed day without searching.