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Sunday, August 17, 2025

NYT Crossword - January 08, 1990 | XWordHint

Master the NYT crossword from January 08, 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 (38 clues)

1A: "1. Actress Prentiss"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PAULA

2A: "6. Hemingway's sobriquet"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk
  • Similar words include: pappa, pop, dad
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PAPA

3A: "10. G-men"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any federal law-enforcement officer
  • Similar words include: Federal Reserve, Fed, FRS
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: FEDS

4A: "14. Hair styles"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a rounded thickly curled hairdo
  • Similar words include: Afro, Afro hairdo
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AFROS

5A: "15. Novelist Kingsley ___"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMIS

6A: "16. Soviet stream"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: URAL

7A: "17. Sitcom add-on"

10 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LAUGHTRACK

8A: "19. Supreme Court number"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of eight and one
  • Similar words include: 9, Nina from Carolina, ball club
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NINE

9A: "20. Gaelic"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of several related languages of the celts in ireland and scotland
  • Similar words include: Goidelic, Gaelic
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERSE

10A: "21. Speed"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that overly eager speed (and possible carelessness)
  • Similar words include: rush, hurriedness, hurry
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HASTE

11A: "22. Want"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a condition requiring relief
  • Similar words include: involve, motive, take
  • Opposite of: obviate
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NEED

12A: "23. Things with springs"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
  • Similar words include: love, hump, know
  • Opposite of: get up, turn out
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BEDS

13A: "24. Route"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that how something is done or how it happens
  • Similar words include: room, elbow room, path
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: WAY

14A: "26. Enchantress"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (greek mythology) a sorceress who detained odysseus on her island and turned his men into swine
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CIRCE

15A: "30. Slippery one"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the fatty flesh of eel; an elongate fish found in fresh water in europe and america; large eels are usually smoked or pickled
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EEL

16A: "32. Metal beam"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IBAR

17A: "35. Negatively charged atoms"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a negatively charged ion
  • Similar words include: anion
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ANIONS

18A: "37. Ambassador or envoy"

8 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an official engaged in international negotiations
  • Similar words include: diplomatist
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DIPLOMAT

19A: "40. Letters to stars"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: FANMAIL

20A: "42. 'Twixt 12 and 20"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that being of the age 13 through 19
  • Similar words include: teenaged, adolescent, teen
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TEENAGE

21A: "43. Surrounded"

8 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ENGIRDED

22A: "45. Surpassing: Comb. form"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PRETER

23A: "46. Suffix with inchoative verbs"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ESCE

24A: "47. Period"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event
  • Similar words include: geological era, epoch, earned run average
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERA

25A: "49. Willow"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that flexible twig of a willow tree
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OSIER

26A: "50. Soviet div."

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SSR

27A: "52. Press"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a heavy ductile magnetic metallic element; is silver-white in pure form but readily rusts; used in construction and tools and armament; plays a role in the transport of oxygen by the blood
  • Similar words include: branding iron, Fe, atomic number 26
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: IRON

28A: "54. Tear"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a payment or series of payments made by the lessee to an owner for use of some property, facility, equipment, or service
  • Similar words include: charter, pull, engage
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RENT

29A: "57. Golfer Palmer"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARNIE

30A: "59. In the center"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMID

31A: "63. Jewish month"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the sixth month of the civil year; the twelfth month of the ecclesiastic year in the jewish calendar (in february and march)
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ADAR

32A: "64. Card-game phrase"

10 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: JOKERSWILD

33A: "66. "La Bohème" heroine"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MIMI

34A: "67. First victim"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that norwegian mathematician (1802-1829)
  • Similar words include: Niels Henrik Abel, Niels Abel
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABEL

35A: "68. Dance of Bohemian origin"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that music performed for dancing the polka
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: POLKA

36A: "69. Kind of mother or son"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any maneuver made as part of progress toward a goal
  • Similar words include: ill-use, stride, footfall
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STEP

37A: "70. Word on a towel"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HERS

38A: "71. Appease"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that lessen the intensity of or calm
  • Similar words include: slake, still, ease
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALLAY

Down Clues - Strategic Hints (40 clues)

1D: "1. Wan"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a wooden strip forming part of a fence
  • Similar words include: pallid, sick, blanch
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PALE

2D: "2. Way off"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (old-fashioned) at or from or to a great distance; far
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AFAR

3D: "3. Wild ox"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that large recently extinct long-horned european wild ox; considered one of the ancestors of domestic cattle
  • Similar words include: Bos primigenius, aurochs
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: URUS

4D: "4. Theater section"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that balcony consisting of the forward section of a theater mezzanine
  • Similar words include: box
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LOGE

5D: "5. Wood for skis"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the residue that remains when something is burned
  • Similar words include: ash tree
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASH

6D: "6. "I Love a ___," 1931 song"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a ceremonial procession including people marching
  • Similar words include: march, troop, exhibit
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PARADE

7D: "7. Gathered"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that collect or gather
  • Similar words include: hoard, amass, cumulate
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMASSED

8D: "8. Early inhabitant of Britain"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PICT

9D: "9. Awry"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that turned or twisted toward one side; - g.k.chesterton
  • Similar words include: lopsided, skew-whiff, wonky
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ASKEW

10D: "10. These often get tickled"

10 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: FUNNYBONES

11D: "11. City in the Keystone State"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a member of an iroquoian people formerly living on the south shore of lake erie in northern ohio and northwest pennsylvania and western new york
  • Similar words include: Lake Erie
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERIE

12D: "12. Hamlet, e.g."

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a native or inhabitant of denmark
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DANE

13D: "13. Snow vehicle"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a vehicle mounted on runners and pulled by horses or dogs; for transportation over snow
  • Similar words include: sledge, sleigh
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SLED

14D: "18. "___ Best of Carson""

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: THE

15D: "23. Former name of Varanasi, India"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BENARES

16D: "25. Wing part"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an airfoil that controls lateral motion
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AILERON

17D: "26. Bistro"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small restaurant where drinks and snacks are sold
  • Similar words include: coffee shop, coffeehouse, coffee bar
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CAFE

18D: "27. Silly"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that devoid of intelligence
  • Similar words include: mindless, vacuous, fatuous
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: INANE

19D: "28. Collar woes?"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that gymnastic apparatus consisting of a pair of heavy metal circles (usually covered with leather) suspended by ropes; used for gymnastic exercises
  • Similar words include: pack, annulus, telephone
  • Opposite of: open chain
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RINGS

20D: "29. "Peanuts," e.g."

10 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: __________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: COMICSTRIP

21D: "31. Kindled"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the humanistic study of a body of literature
  • Similar words include: lighted, dismount, light up
  • Opposite of: unlighted, extinguish
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LIT

22D: "33. Strad competitor"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that italian violin maker in cremona; taught the craft to guarneri and stradivari (1596-1684)
  • Similar words include: Nicola Amati, Nicolo Amati
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AMATI

23D: "34. E. Indian cereal grass"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that east indian cereal grass whose seed yield a somewhat bitter flour, a staple in the orient
  • Similar words include: finger millet, Eleusine coracana, coracan
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAGEE

24D: "36. Caesar from Yonkers"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SID

25D: "38. Vim"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that liveliness and energy
  • Similar words include: peppiness, ginger
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PEP

26D: "39. Haw. before 1959"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: TERR

27D: "41. Novelist Harper ___"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states filmmaker whose works explore the richness of black culture in america (born in 1957)
  • Similar words include: Tsung Dao Lee, Shelton Jackson Lee, Lighthorse Harry Lee
  • Opposite of: windward
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LEE

28D: "44. A.A. candidate"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a person who drinks liquids
  • Similar words include: toper, juicer, imbiber
  • Opposite of: nondrinker
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DRINKER

29D: "48. Gazelles of Arabia"

6 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARIELS

30D: "51. Rani's spouse"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a prince or king in india
  • Similar words include: raja
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAJAH

31D: "53. Finished, to Keats"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OER

32D: "54. Bellwethers"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on; an integrated circuit memory chip allows information to be stored or accessed in any order and all storage locations are equally accessible
  • Similar words include: cram, pound, RAM
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAMS

33D: "55. Redact"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, or adapting
  • Similar words include: edit out, redact, cut
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EDIT

34D: "56. Appoint"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a language unit by which a person or thing is known
  • Similar words include: list, key, describe
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NAME

35D: "58. Gown"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any loose flowing garment
  • Similar words include: vest, gown, cloak
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ROBE

36D: "59. G.I. truant"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that one who is away or absent without leave
  • Similar words include: truant
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AWOL

37D: "60. Factory"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a plant consisting of one or more buildings with facilities for manufacturing
  • Similar words include: mill about, factory, grinder
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MILL

38D: "61. Actress-writer Chase"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ILKA

39D: "62. June 6, 1944"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: DDAY

40D: "65. Baden-Baden is one"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Puzzle Stats

38 Across
40 Down
78 Total

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

Processed: August 17, 2025 at 12:53 PM

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