Search Clues

Sunday, August 24, 2025

January 29, 1990 NYT Clues Solutions | XWordHint

Master the NYT crossword from January 29, 1990 with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun.

Puzzle Difficulty: Challenging

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

Across Clues - Strategic Hints (40 clues)

1A: "1. Call off a rocket's flight"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the act of terminating a project or procedure before it is completed
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABORT

2A: "6. End of a Springsteen title"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that north american republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in north america plus alaska in northwest north america and the hawaiian islands in the pacific ocean; achieved independence in 1776
  • Similar words include: U. S. Army, United States Army, United States of America
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: USA

3A: "9. "Major ___," TV sitcom"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk
  • Similar words include: dada, daddy, pappa
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DAD

4A: "12. Religion of some Iranians"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a teacher of or believer in bahaism
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BAHAI

5A: "13. City on seven hills"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that capital and largest city of italy; on the tiber; seat of the roman catholic church; formerly the capital of the roman republic and the roman empire
  • Similar words include: Italian capital, Eternal City, capital of Italy
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROME

6A: "15. Wall: Sp."

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MURO

7A: "16. Childhood problem"

10 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an acute contagious disease caused by herpes varicella zoster virus; causes a rash of vesicles on the face and body
  • Similar words include: varicella
  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CHICKENPOX

8A: "18. "Yes ___": S. Davis Jr. book"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ICAN

9A: "19. Subway rider's need"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an individual instance of a type of symbol
  • Similar words include: souvenir, item, nominal
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TOKEN

10A: "20. Pumpernickel"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the seed of the cereal grass
  • Similar words include: rye whisky, rye whiskey, Secale cereale
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RYE

11A: "21. Related"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that similar in quality or character
  • Similar words include: cognate, kin, blood-related
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AKIN

12A: "22. Fountain drink"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a sodium salt of carbonic acid; used in making soap powders and glass and paper
  • Similar words include: tonic, washing soda, soda pop
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SODA

13A: "24. Move around aimlessly"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an aimless amble on a winding course
  • Similar words include: roll, roam, meander
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAMBLE

14A: "26. Sacks"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a flexible container with a single opening
  • Similar words include: dish, pocket, base
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BAGS

15A: "30. It also rises"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the star that is the source of light and heat for the planets in the solar system
  • Similar words include: sunshine, insolate, sunbathe
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SUN

16A: "31. A combo"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
  • Similar words include: ternion, 3, trine
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TRIO

17A: "32. Bellowing"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AROAR

18A: "34. Slipper or lover"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an ardent male lover
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROMEO

19A: "36. Mimic"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all
  • Similar words include: copycat, imitator, anthropoid
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: APE

20A: "39. Loss of a word's ending"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that abbreviation of a word by omitting the final sound or sounds
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: APOCOPE

21A: "41. Beau"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a person who backs a politician or a team etc.
  • Similar words include: champion, protagonist, supporter
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ADMIRER

22A: "43. ___ Vegas"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily; occurs in rare earth minerals and is usually classified as a rare earth
  • Similar words include: atomic number 57, lah, la
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LAS

23A: "44. Trite"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that dull and tiresome but with pretensions of significance or originality
  • Similar words include: platitudinal, bromidic, platitudinous
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CORNY

24A: "46. "As You Like It" forest"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARDEN

25A: "47. Repeat"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the repetition of a sound resulting from reflection of the sound waves
  • Similar words include: replication, resound, reverberation
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ECHO

26A: "49. Dawn goddess"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (greek mythology) the winged goddess of the dawn in ancient mythology; daughter of hyperion; identified with roman aurora
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EOS

27A: "51. Inquires"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that inquire about
  • Similar words include: require, expect, demand
  • Opposite of: obviate
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASKS

28A: "52. He wrote "The Care of Time": 1981"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who walks at a leisurely pace
  • Similar words include: saunterer, stroller
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMBLER

29A: "54. Small singing bird"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that english architect who designed more than fifty london churches (1632-1723)
  • Similar words include: jenny wren, Sir Christopher Wren
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: WREN

30A: "56. Kind of tenant?"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the post or function properly or customarily occupied or served by another
  • Similar words include: place, position, stead
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LIEU

31A: "57. W.W. II Greek undergrounders"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EAM

32A: "59. Silk dye"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a red fluorescent dye resulting from the action of bromine on fluorescein; used in cosmetics and as a biological stain for studying cell structures
  • Similar words include: bromeosin
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EOSIN

33A: "63. Allowance for weight"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an adjustment made for the weight of the packaging in order to determine the net weight of the goods
  • Similar words include: Lolium temulentum, darnel, cheat
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TARE

34A: "64. Character in folklore and ballet"

10 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SWANMAIDEN

35A: "67. Yours and mine"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OURS

36A: "68. "A ___clock scholar""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TENO

37A: "69. East German city"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a city in the saxony region of germany on the saale river; a member of the hanseatic league during the 13th and 14th centuries
  • Similar words include: Halle-an-der-Saale
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HALLE

38A: "70. Foxy"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that marked by skill in deception
  • Similar words include: slick, tricky, wily
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SLY

39A: "71. Summer time in N.Y."

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DST

40A: "72. Food fish"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that small cold-water silvery fish; migrate between salt and fresh water
  • Similar words include: smell out, sense, smell
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SMELT

Down Clues - Strategic Hints (38 clues)

1D: "1. Network for Koppel"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the elementary stages of any subject (usually plural)
  • Similar words include: ABCs, first rudiment, ABC's
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABC

2D: "2. Thai coin"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the basic unit of money in thailand
  • Similar words include: tical
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BAHT

3D: "3. Columbus milieu"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a midwestern state in north central united states in the great lakes region
  • Similar words include: Buckeye State, Ohio River, OH
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OHIO

4D: "4. Pool-room item"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that framework for holding objects
  • Similar words include: torment, torture, wring
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RACK

5D: "5. Small ones: Var."

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement
  • Similar words include: fry, minor, small fry
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TIKES

6D: "6. Vase"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a large vase that usually has a pedestal or feet
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: URN

7D: "7. Renata Scotto is one"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a female singer
  • Similar words include: treble
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SOPRANO

8D: "8. Former name of Xiamen"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of the forms of chinese spoken in fukien province
  • Similar words include: Taiwanese, Fukkianese, Min
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMOY

9D: "9. Shower-room items"

10 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a boardwalk laid across muddy ground
  • Similar words include: duckboard
  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DUCKBOARDS

10D: "10. Thin as ___"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARAIL

11D: "11. Famed metaphysical poet"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that english clergyman and metaphysical poet celebrated as a preacher (1572-1631)
  • Similar words include: John Donne
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DONNE

12D: "14. Put forth energy"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that have and exercise
  • Similar words include: maintain, exercise, wield
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EXERTED

13D: "15. City for snowbirds"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a member of the extinct algonquian people formerly living in northern indiana and southern michigan
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MIAMI

14D: "17. Biblical oldster"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ENOS

15D: "23. Engraver Albrecht ___"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a leading german painter and engraver of the renaissance (1471-1528)
  • Similar words include: Albrecht Durer
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DURER

16D: "25. Scent"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any property detected by the olfactory system
  • Similar words include: fragrance, olfactory property, odour
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AROMA

17D: "26. Jezebel's deity"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient semitic peoples; the hebrews considered baal a false god
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BAAL

18D: "27. Angel's instrument: It."

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARPA

19D: "28. Prickly shrub or its fruit"

10 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that spiny eurasian shrub having greenish purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries
  • Similar words include: gooseberry bush, Ribes grossularia, Ribes uva-crispa
  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GOOSEBERRY

20D: "29. Part of the U.S.A.F."

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an enclosed space
  • Similar words include: pouch, theca, pocket
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SAC

21D: "33. Author Mazo de la ___"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROCHE

22D: "35. John Lindsay, once"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the head of a city government
  • Similar words include: city manager
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MAYOR

23D: "37. Sneak a look"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a secret look
  • Similar words include: peep, glance, glint
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEEK

24D: "38. Sea birds"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

25D: "40. Worst"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that deserving or inciting pity; ; ; - galsworthy
  • Similar words include: pathetic, pitiful, wretched
  • Opposite of: rich
Click to reveal answer
Answer: POOREST

26D: "42. Retiree's nest egg"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a militant organization of irish nationalists who used terrorism and guerilla warfare in an effort to drive british forces from northern ireland and achieve a united independent ireland
  • Similar words include: Irish Republican Army, wrath, Provisional Irish Republican Army
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IRA

27D: "45. Paul and a cardinal"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states film actor (born in 1925)
  • Similar words include: John Henry Newman, Newman, Cardinal Newman
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NEWMANS

28D: "48. Hints"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a slight indication
  • Similar words include: hint, clue, clew
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CLUES

29D: "50. Appear"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect
  • Similar words include: appear, look
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SEEM

30D: "52. Quartet members"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a singer whose voice lies in the alto clef
  • Similar words include: countertenor, contralto, alto
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALTOS

31D: "53. Sound from Garfield"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the sound made by a cat (or any sound resembling this)
  • Similar words include: miaou, miaow, meow
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MIAUL

32D: "55. Namesakes of a son of Lamech"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the hebrew patriarch who saved himself and his family and the animals by building an ark in which they survived 40 days and 40 nights of rain; the story of noah and the flood is told in the book of genesis
  • Similar words include: Noah
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NOAHS

33D: "58. Filled with reverential fear"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that inspire awe in
  • Similar words include: awestruck, awful, awestricken
  • Opposite of: unawed
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AWED

34D: "60. Where Anna Leonowens worked"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a country of southeastern asia that extends southward along the isthmus of kra to the malay peninsula
  • Similar words include: Thailand, Kingdom of Thailand
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SIAM

35D: "61. Unemployed"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling
  • Similar words include: laze, groundless, out of work
  • Opposite of: busy, run
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IDLE

36D: "62. Gwyn or Carter"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NELL

37D: "65. "___ guilty!""

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that negation of a word or group of words
  • Similar words include: non
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NOT

38D: "66. Tennis-court item"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a computer network consisting of a worldwide network of computer networks that use the tcp/ip network protocols to facilitate data transmission and exchange
  • Similar words include: sack up, last, earnings
  • Opposite of: gross
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NET

Puzzle Stats

40 Across
38 Down
78 Total

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

Processed: August 24, 2025 at 06:30 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment