NYT Strands Hints and Answers for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026 (#971): Hints for the Spangram and Six Theme Words

Today’s Strands from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #971, for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and its theme clue is the phrase “All charged up.” Think of what a phone or a lamp needs before it will work. The puzzle was constructed 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 describes a device that is connected to an outlet.
• Hint 2

  Two words run together: a past-tense verb and a short preposition.
• Hint 3

  Nine letters, starting with P and ending with N.

Theme word hints

There are six theme words, all tied to electricity and energy:

• 7 letters, starts with C

  the flow of electric charge through a wire.
• 11 letters, starts with E

  the form of energy that runs lights and appliances.
• 6 letters, starts with E

  the capacity to do work.
• 5 letters, starts with J

  slang for electric power, and also what you squeeze from an orange.
• 5 letters, starts with P

  what a utility supplies to a building.
• 5 letters, starts with S

  a brief flash of light from an electrical gap.

Solving tips

Start with the spangram. At nine 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 answer, and the 7-letter word is the next longest after the spangram. Three of the theme words have five 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: Plugged in
• Theme words: Current, Electricity, Energy, Juice, Power, Spark

All seven answers fit the clue: a device that is plugged in gets charged up, and the six theme words are terms for electricity and energy.

We checked the answers against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #972 arrives at midnight.