NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #218 (Monday, October 7 2024)

1. Today's hints

2. Today's answer

3. Yesterday's answer

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Most excellent" — is rather cryptic, and relies on a certain knowledge of slang to complete.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #218, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We'll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #218, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #218.

Today's NYT Strands answer — Today's theme and hints

The official theme for NYT Strands #218 is... "Most excellent".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "Wicked slang".

If you're still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:

• COSTS
• SHOTS
• VOWELS
• GOOD
• SWEAT
• HALLS
• SHALL

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it both starts with 'T' and ends with 'L'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's THATSCOOL.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #218?

Drumroll, please...

• BOSS
• GROOVY
• DANDY
• CHOICE
• HYPE
• RIGHTEOUS
• SWELL

..and the spangram was THATSCOOL.

Strands #218

“Most excellent”

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Hi Strands fans. How well you fare on today's puzzle will depend on how au fait you are with several decades' worth of slang. For me, this made it a challenge.

In fact, I had to use a clue right away, which revealed BOSS - a term that I'd have been unlikely to find on my own.

Still, it set me up definitively with the theme, having been unable to see past Bill & Ted previously. I connected GROOVY in the top-left corner, followed by DANDY below BOSS on the right side.

CHOICE and HYPE followed along the bottom before I began searching for the spangram. Having found "right" in the bottom-right corner, I pursued this, expecting it to connect to the other side of the board, only for it to stop short at RIGHTEOUS.

Still, by connecting that, I'd exposed the route for the actual spangram, which turned out to be THATSCOOL, spelt from left to right along the middle of the grid. That just left SWELL above it to complete the puzzle.

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #217 right here .