NYT ‘Strands’ Hints And Answers — Wednesday, October 15

Another day, another Strands puzzle to solve. We have words to uncover and a grid to fill out. Let’s find some words!

Looking for Monday’s Strands? Check out our guide right here.


How To Play Strands

Strands is the newest game in the New York Times’ stable of puzzle games. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Every day we’re given a new theme and then tasked with uncovering all the words on the grid that fit that theme, including a spangram that spans two sides of the board. One of these words is the spangram which crosses from one side of the grid to another and reveals even more about the day’s theme.

Spoilers ahead.

Today’s Strands Hints

Read on for today’s theme and some hints to help you uncover today’s words.

Today’s Theme: Going up?

Today’s Hint: Think in terms of hotels or office buildings.

Here are the first two letters of each word:

Remember, spoilers ahead!

What Are Today’s Strands Answers?

Today’s spangram is: ELEVATORBUTTONS

Here’s the full list of words:

  • ALARM
  • GROUND
  • LOBBY
  • OPEN
  • CLOSE
  • BASEMENT

Here’s the completed Strands grid:

Today’s Strands Breakdown

This is fun because you have the spangram going up and then back down, just like an elevator. I actually found ELEVATOR first and when it didn’t work, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence. I quickly found BUTTONS and once the spangram was in the bag, the rest of the words came quickly enough. First OPEN then CLOSE then BASEMENT and the right side was done. The left side was a little trickier, but I worked my way up from the LOBBY to GROUND and finally set off the ALARM because I was done!


How did you do on your Strands today? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.

Be sure to check out my blog for my daily Wordle guides as well as all my other writing about TV shows, streaming guides, movie reviews, video game coverage and much more. Thanks for stopping by!

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/10/14/nyt-strands-hints-and-answers-for-wednesday-october-15/