NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, October 18 (game #229)

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my Wordle today , NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #229) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… All wrapped up

NYT Strands today (game #229) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• VIPER
• SING
• PLING
• SLOG
• MAST
• PAST

NYT Strands today (game #229) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Filler upper

NYT Strands today (game #229) - hint #4 - spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First: right, 4th row

Last: left, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #229) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #229, are…

• GYOZA
• SAMOSA
• WONTON
• PIEROGI
• EMPANADA
• SPANGRAM: DUMPLINGS

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 3 hints

These are all things that I like to eat, so you'd have thought that I'd have flown through today's Strands – but no, I needed three hints to complete it. The shame!

In my defense, the first one was required because the theme clue of 'All wrapped up' wasn't so obvious that I knew what was needed. It gave me GYOZA, at which point I was away and was able to get SAMOSA too. But there I stalled. I couldn't think of any other 'wrapped foods', so needed one hint for WONTON and one for PIEROGI. I got EMPANADA, but only after about 20 minutes of trying to make the letters assemble into an actual word. Not my finest hour.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Thursday, 17 October, game #228)

• DRAFT
• WAIVERS
• ROSTER
• MATCHUPS
• STANDINGS
• SPANGRAM: FANTASYLEAGUE

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to h ow to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.