If you came looking for NYT Strands hints today, consider this your friendly and entirely non-nosy guide to puzzle 964 for Friday, October 23, 2026. The theme is “None of your beeswax!”, which is the New York Times politely telling you to mind your own business while asking you to hunt for words about people who refuse to.
Today’s board has a few long words that look like alphabet soup until they suddenly don’t. Read on for the theme hint, the clue words that unlock in-game help, and every answer including the spangram.
In This Article
What Is Today’s NYT Strands Theme?
The theme is “None of your beeswax!” and the one-word nudge is MYOB. If that acronym is already ringing a bell, you’re halfway there. Think about the kind of person who reads your messages over your shoulder, asks pointed questions at dinner, and somehow always knows the office gossip before HR does.
That is the NYT Strands theme hint today in a nutshell. Every answer is a word for someone (or something) a bit too curious about other people’s affairs.
Read Also: OnePlus Extends Festive Sale with Discounts Across Smartphones, Tablets, and Audio Range
Clue Words to Unlock In-Game Hints
Strands rewards persistence. Every time you find three valid words of four letters or more, the game reveals one theme word for you. These NYT Strands clue words unlock that help, though any four-letter-plus words will do the job.
- SING
- GOOP
- BONG
- PONG
- PING
- RING
- DING
- YETI
- GOON
- BEAVER
- BEAVERS
None of these belong to the answer list, so don’t fret if your own picks look just as random. Four of them do end in ING, which is a handy reminder that two of today’s longer answers share that same ending.
NYT Strands Answers for Puzzle 964 (Spoilers Ahead)
Scroll no further if you’d like to keep the solving to yourself. These are the NYT Strands 964 answers in full, which also covers the Strands answers for puzzle 964 on October 23, 2026.
- NOSY
- PRYING
- SNOOPY
- INQUISITIVE
- EAVESDROPPING
The two heavyweights are INQUISITIVE at 11 letters and EAVESDROPPING at a hefty 13. Long words are usually where streaks go to die, so try spotting the ending first and work backwards through the grid. EAVESDROPPING also has a lovely backstory. The root word comes from the dripping water that falls from a roof’s edge, which is exactly where snoopers once stood to catch conversations inside a house. SNOOPY, for its part, is generally traced back to a Dutch word about sneaking small bites on the sly.
Today’s Strands Spangram
For anyone chasing the Strands spangram October 23 has on offer, it is BUSYBODY. It’s the theme word that stretches from one side of the board to the other, and finding it early makes everything else easier to place. To locate it, start with the B in the first spot on the top row, then wind down and to the right diagonally through the grid.
Remember that once every answer is found, each letter on the board gets used. The total number of answers can vary from day to day, so a missing word usually means a short one is hiding in a corner. Today there are six in all, counting the spangram.
Read Also: How to lock a chat in ChatGPT
Quick Tips for Solving Strands Faster
Strands resets at midnight in your own time zone, so players in the USA, UK, Australia and India are all sitting down to the same puzzle at different hours. A few habits help no matter where you are.
- Hunt for the spangram first, since it anchors the whole board
- Use the in-game hint system sparingly and save it for the long words
- Look for common endings like ING before you commit to a path
- If you’re stuck, trace any word you can find, because three valid finds earns a free hint
