NYT Strands Hints and Answers for Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026 (#966): The 'Something to Build On' Spangram

Today’s Strands from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #966, for Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, and the theme clue is “Something to build on.” Think of what holds up a building, or a plan. Below are hints for the spangram and each theme word; the answers wait in a marked spoiler section at the end.

How Strands works

The board is six letters wide and eight tall. Theme words are made by linking letters that touch, up, down, sideways or diagonally, and every letter is used exactly once. One special answer, the spangram, names the theme and stretches from one side of the board to the opposite side. Find three non-theme words and you earn a hint that highlights the letters of a theme word.

Spangram hints

• Hint 1: It describes what supports something built above it.
• Hint 2: A plural noun for the bases on which something is built or developed.
• Hint 3: Eleven letters, starting with F and ending with S.

Theme word hints

There are four theme words, all names for the parts that give something its shape:

• 9 letters, starts with F: a basic plan or set of rules that a larger project hangs on.
• 11 letters, starts with S: the temporary frame workers climb while a building goes up.
• 8 letters, starts with S: the internal support of a body.
• 9 letters, starts with S: an organized arrangement of parts, or a building.

Solving tips

Start with the spangram. At 11 letters it crosses the board from one side to the other, and the 11-letter theme word is the next one to look for. If you get stuck, spell any ordinary words you can see to earn a hint.

Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 printable calendar.

More of today’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Connections hints and Quordle hints.

Today’s Strands answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

• Spangram: Foundations
• Theme words: Framework, Scaffolding, Skeleton, Structure

All five answers describe something that supports or gives shape to something else: a framework gives a plan its outline, scaffolding holds up construction, a skeleton supports a body and a structure is an organized arrangement of parts.

We checked the answers against more than one published source before posting. Puzzle #967 arrives at midnight.