NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Saturday, October 19 (game #230)

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 #230) - hint #1 - today's theme

What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Turn it up a notch

NYT Strands today (game #230) - hint #2 - clue words

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

• SPAN
• SPAR
• PROM
• HERE
• SOME
• MOTE

NYT Strands today (game #230) - hint #3 - spangram

What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Give it some more

NYT Strands today (game #230) - hint #4 - spangram position

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

First: top, 5th column

Last: bottom, 4th column

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

NYT Strands today (game #230) - the answers

The answers to today's Strands, game #230, are…

• ZING
• KICK
• SPARK
• PIZZAZZ
• FIZZ
• OOMPH
• VERVE
• SPANGRAM: EXTRASOMETHING

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 1 hint

Look at all those Zs! Seven of them in total, including four in PIZZAZZ alone. These did help me to get started, though, because Z doesn't go with many other letters (vowels, basically), which made it easier to find ZING. Plus ZZ is an obvious combination and it was fairly easy to also find FIZZ and the aforementioned PIZZAZZ. I stumbled upon KICK and SPARK by accident and by that point had so much of the board uncovered that it felt like completing it would be a simple task.

But no. I stalled at that stage and needed a hint to unlock OOMPH. That did the trick, and when I finally spotted the spangram, EXTRASOMETHING, victory was only a guess away.

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

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Friday, 18 October, game #229)

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

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.