NYT Strands Hints and Answers for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026 (#968): Hints for the Spangram and Six Theme Words

Today’s Strands from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #968, for Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, and its theme clue is a question about who to call for help. Think of the person you phone when unwelcome creatures move into your home. The puzzle was constructed by Christina Iverson and edited by Tracy Bennett. 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 names the person you call to deal with unwanted creatures.
• Hint 2: A noun for a professional who gets rid of pests.
• Hint 3: Twelve letters, starting with E and ending with R.

Theme word hints

There are six theme words, all creatures you would not want in your home:

• 4 letters, starts with A: tiny insects that live in colonies.
• 11 letters, starts with C: hardy insects that scurry around kitchens.
• 4 letters, starts with M: small rodents; this is the plural form.
• 4 letters, starts with R: larger rodents than the ones above.
• 8 letters, starts with T: insects that eat wood.
• 5 letters, starts with T: small creatures that bite and feed on blood.

Solving tips

Start with the spangram. At 12 letters it crosses the board from one side to the other; on today’s board it begins at the left edge and reaches the right edge. The 11-letter theme word is the longest one after it. Three of the theme words have only four letters, so look for them once the long words are out of the way. 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 Pips hints.

Today’s Strands answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

• Spangram: Exterminator
• Theme words: Ants, Cockroaches, Mice, Rats, Termites, Ticks

All seven answers fit the clue: the exterminator is who you call, and the six theme words are the pests an exterminator removes.

We checked the answers against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #969 arrives at midnight.