NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #223 (Saturday, October 12 2024)

NYT Strands on a cellphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Guide/NY Times/Shutterstock)
Strands today: Quick menu

Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today's theme — "Toon time" — starts off easily enough, but becomes rather tricky after the first few answers.

Below, we've compiled some useful hints for Strands #223, 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 #223, so read on if you need a little help.

Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #223.  

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

The official theme for NYT Strands #223 is... "Toon time".

And here's an unofficial hint from me: "That's all folks!"

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

  • GROAN
  • BUNNY
  • READ
  • CHEAT
  • HEART
  • BOAR

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it both starts with 'C' and ends with 'S'.

Scroll down to find out what it is...

It's CHARACTERS.

Today's Strands answers

So, what are today's Strands answers for game #223?

Drumroll, please...

  • PORKY
  • BUGS
  • DAFFY
  • FOGHORN
  • FOXY
  • GRANNY
  • PETUNIA

Strands #223

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

..and the spangram was CHARACTERS.

Strands #223

“Toon time”

🔵🔵🔵🔵

🔵🔵🟡🔵

Hi Strands fans. No prizes for figuring out that the theme of "Toon time" refers to cartoons. But it turns out my knowledge of Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons is a lot more lacking than I expected.

When I found PORKY in the bottom-right corner, I expected this to be a breeze. Indeed, I quickly began knocking off the Loony Tunes staples one by one: BUGS, DAFFY and FOGHORN all fell, meaning I had an answer in every corner of the grid.

But after this, I was struggling. I couldn't see "roadrunner", "coyote" or even my personal favorite "marvin" anywhere. 

In the spirit of getting clue words for the section above, I connected FOXY and was surprised to see it lighting up. Either this wasn't just about the Loony Tunes/Merrie Melodies universe, or my knowledge of it was distinctly limited.

Turns out it was the latter, and I managed to guess another one with GRANNY underneath FOXY. That helped me get the spangram of CHARACTERS immediately above it, which left only one word to get in an impossible-to-get-wrong straight line: PETUNIA. 

According to Wikipedia, Petunia Pig is Porky's "significant other". You learn a new thing every day. Not necessarily something useful, but that's life...

Yesterday's Strands answers

Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday's Strands answers for game #222 right here.

Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.