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Sunday, August 24, 2025

January 16, 1990 NYT Clues Solutions | XWordHint

Master the NYT crossword from January 16, 1990 with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun.

Puzzle Difficulty: Tricky

Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!

Across Clues - Strategic Hints (37 clues)

1A: "1. Mimic"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who copies the words or behavior of another
  • Similar words include: imitator, copycat, emulator
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: APER

2A: "5. Bell and Kettle"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that informal terms for a mother
  • Similar words include: mama, mamma, momma
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MAS

3A: "8. Yearned"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that feel physical pain
  • Similar words include: yearn, ache, yen
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACHED

4A: "13. Brood"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who wastes time
  • Similar words include: lounger, moon around, dillydallier
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MOPE

5A: "14. Stone"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the dressed hairy coat of a mammal
  • Similar words include: hide, pour, fur
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PELT

6A: "15. Archie or Grace"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states composer of works noted for their use of the american vernacular (1893-1969)
  • Similar words include: Marianne Craig Moore, Dudley Moore, Henry Moore
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MOORE

7A: "16. Certain test"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of various water-soluble compounds having a sour taste and capable of turning litmus red and reacting with a base to form a salt
  • Similar words include: battery-acid, back breaker, dose
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACID

8A: "17. Arab chief"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an independent ruler or chieftain (especially in africa or arabia)
  • Similar words include: emeer, amir, ameer
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EMIR

9A: "18. Cat-___-tails"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ONINE

10A: "19. Trickery"

10 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HOCUSPOCUS

11A: "22. Pokey"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a prominent or sensational but short-lived news event
  • Similar words include: invoke, flurry, shift
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STIR

12A: "23. Polar or ice follower"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a tight-fitting headdress
  • Similar words include: roof, detonator, crownwork
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CAP

13A: "24. Worker for a company"

8 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a worker who is hired to perform a job
  • Opposite of: employer
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EMPLOYEE

14A: "26. Plotted"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner
  • Similar words include: intrigue, connive, scheme
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SCHEMED

15A: "30. Rapid in a river"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SAULT

16A: "31. Chat"

8 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that light informal conversation for social occasions
  • Similar words include: gab, chitchat, small talk
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CAUSERIE

17A: "33. Nodule of stone"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (mineralogy) a hollow rock or nodule with the cavity usually lined with crystals
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GEODE

18A: "36. Abbr. at Kennedy"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARR

19A: "37. Emulates a cheerleader"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a loud utterance; often in protest or opposition
  • Similar words include: shout, scream, call
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: YELLS

20A: "40. One-tenth of XXX"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
  • Similar words include: terzetto, troika, trinity
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: III

21A: "41. Italo ___, Italian Fascist leader"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BALBO

22A: "44. "See ___, alligator""

8 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: YOULATER

23A: "47. Brigham or Robert"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any immature animal
  • Similar words include: untested, Thomas Young, Loretta Young
  • Opposite of: aged, old
Click to reveal answer
Answer: YOUNG

24A: "50. Altar boy"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who assists a priest or minister in a liturgical service; a cleric ordained in the highest of the minor orders in the roman catholic church but not in the anglican church or the eastern orthodox churches
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACOLYTE

25A: "51. Fortify"

8 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that fortify by furnishing with battlements for defense
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EMBATTLE

26A: "54. Charpoy"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a sheath worn to protect a finger
  • Similar words include: camp bed, crib, fingerstall
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: COT

27A: "55. Overwhelm"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a disorderly crowd of people
  • Similar words include: mob, root, rabble
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROUT

28A: "56. Olio"

10 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a motley assortment of things
  • Similar words include: farrago, odds and ends, jumble
  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HODGEPODGE

29A: "61. Standards"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a standard or model or pattern regarded as typical
  • Similar words include: norm, average
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NORMS

30A: "63. Cribs"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a container; usually has a lid
  • Similar words include: bank identification number, ABA transit number, bin
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BINS

31A: "64. Evangelist Roberts"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an examination conducted by spoken communication
  • Similar words include: unwritten, oral exam, viva
  • Opposite of: anal, aboral
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ORAL

32A: "65. Aunt in "Oklahoma!""

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELLER

33A: "66. Collections of sayings"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that type genus of the anatidae: freshwater ducks
  • Similar words include: ana, genus Anas, Ana
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ANAS

34A: "67. Catch a thief"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits
  • Similar words include: apprehend, collar, nab
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NAIL

35A: "68. "Just ___": Nancy Reagan"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SAYNO

36A: "69. Roman household god"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LAR

37A: "70. "___ boy!""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ATTA

Down Clues - Strategic Hints (39 clues)

1D: "1. Shanghai nurse"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a woman hired to suckle a child of someone else
  • Similar words include: maid, housemaid, wetnurse
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMAH

2D: "2. Not much, in Mexico"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: POCO

3D: "3. The "Aeneid," e.g."

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
  • Similar words include: heroic poem, heroic, epos
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EPIC

4D: "4. Solves a "weighty" problem"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that cut down on; make a reduction in
  • Similar words include: abbreviate, slim down, deoxidize
  • Opposite of: expand, blow up
Click to reveal answer
Answer: REDUCES

5D: "5. Off. note"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a written proposal or reminder
  • Similar words include: memoranda, memorandum
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MEMO

6D: "6. Movie restaurateur"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALICE

7D: "7. Plays the banjo"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that sound of strumming
  • Similar words include: thrum, strum
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STRUMS

8D: "8. Latin I word"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMO

9D: "9. Kind of table"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small table fixed to a wall or designed to stand against a wall
  • Similar words include: cabinet, console table, soothe
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CONSOLE

10D: "10. Giddy or haughty"

10 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HOITYTOITY

11D: "11. Athlete Banks or Nevers"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERNIE

12D: "12. Steel-plow inventor"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states industrialist who manufactured plows suitable for working the prairie soil (1804-1886)
  • Similar words include: John Deere
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DEERE

13D: "14. Piquant"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that having the piquant burning taste of peppers
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEPPERY

14D: "20. Identical"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a member of an indigenous nomadic people living in northern scandinavia and herding reindeer
  • Similar words include: Lapp, Lapplander, Sami
  • Opposite of: unlike, other
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SAME

15D: "21. Resort of a sort"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a health resort near a spring or at the seaside
  • Similar words include: watering hole, health spa, watering place
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPA

16D: "25. Box for fruit"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that ancient celtic god
  • Similar words include: lugsail, block, lugworm
  • Opposite of: unstuff
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LUG

17D: "26. Plant disease"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike
  • Similar words include: blackleg, rat, fink
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SCAB

18D: "27. Pedro's face"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CARA

19D: "28. Tumult"

10 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HURLYBURLY

20D: "29. What Caesar cast"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small cube with 1 to 6 spots on the six faces; used in gambling to generate random numbers
  • Similar words include: become flat, pall, break down
  • Opposite of: be born
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DIE

21D: "32. Bridge expert Culbertson"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELY

22D: "34. ___ of Worms: 1521"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a prescribed selection of foods
  • Similar words include: dieting
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DIET

23D: "35. Ireland, to a Gael"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of ireland; achieved independence from the united kingdom in 1921
  • Similar words include: Irish Republic, Republic of Ireland, Ireland
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EIRE

24D: "38. Mauna ___"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LOA

25D: "39. It has a "sweet smell""

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an event that accomplishes its intended purpose
  • Similar words include: achiever, succeeder, winner
  • Opposite of: loser, failure
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SUCCESS

26D: "42. Gondoliers"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who drives or rides in a boat
  • Similar words include: boatman, boater, waterman
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BOATMEN

27D: "43. "Include me ___": Sam Goldwyn"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (baseball) a failure by a batter or runner to reach a base safely in baseball
  • Similar words include: come out of the closet, stunned, away
  • Opposite of: safe
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OUT

28D: "45. Chicago attraction"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that fastener consisting of a metal ring for lining a small hole to permit the attachment of cords or lines
  • Similar words include: intertwine, grummet, iteration
  • Opposite of: open circuit, uncoil
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LOOP

29D: "46. City in central Pa."

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a town in central pennsylvania
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALTOONA

30D: "48. Certain degree"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that last or greatest in an indefinitely large series
  • Similar words include: n-th
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NTH

31D: "49. Worldwide"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that involving the entire earth; not limited or provincial in scope
  • Similar words include: planetary, worldwide, world
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GLOBAL

32D: "51. Sea birds"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that bulky greyish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail; of europe and greenland
  • Similar words include: white-tailed sea eagle, Haliatus albicilla, gray sea eagle
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERNES

33D: "52. Scratch"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MOOLA

34D: "53. Suburb of Minneapolis"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EDINA

35D: "57. Growl"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GNAR

36D: "58. Mild oath"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DRAT

37D: "59. Pace"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the rate of moving (especially walking or running)
  • Similar words include: pace
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GAIT

38D: "60. Actress Raines"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELLA

39D: "62. Hit sign"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SRO

Puzzle Stats

37 Across
39 Down
76 Total

Disclaimer: Crossword clues © The New York Times. Educational content for puzzle enthusiasts.

Processed: August 23, 2025 at 09:38 PM

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