NYT Strands Hints and Answers for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026 (#972): Hints for the Spangram and Six Theme Words

Today’s Strands from The New York Times (NYT) is puzzle #972, for Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, and its theme clue is “It’s in the bag.” The puzzle falls on Halloween, so think of what a trick-or-treater carries 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 is what children say at the door on Halloween night.
• Hint 2

  A three-word phrase, written as one string on the board.
• Hint 3

  Twelve letters, starting with T and ending with T.

Theme word hints

There are six theme words, all things that can land in a trick-or-treat bag:

• 5 letters, starts with A

  a fruit, sometimes handed out as a healthy treat.
• 5 letters, starts with C

  the sweet treat most people expect in the bag.
• 5 letters, starts with F

  pointed teeth that come with a costume.
• 4 letters, starts with R

  a small piece of jewelry for a finger.
• 7 letters, starts with S

  a small adhesive decoration with a picture on it.
• 10 letters, starts with T

  a tool for cleaning your teeth, the longest theme word.

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 10-letter theme word is the longest one after it. Four of the theme words have five letters or fewer, 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: Trick or Treat
• Theme words: Apple, Candy, Fangs, Ring, Sticker, Toothbrush

All seven answers fit the clue: the spangram is the Halloween call, and the six theme words are things that land in the bag.

We checked the answers against the puzzle’s official data before posting. Puzzle #973 arrives at midnight.