Master today's NYT crossword with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun. Perfect for crossword lovers who want that satisfying "aha!" moment.
Quick Navigation - Table of Contents
- Today's Puzzle Difficulty
- Across Clues Table (39 clues)
- Across Clues - Detailed Hints
- Down Clues Table (39 clues)
- Down Clues - Detailed Hints
- Expert Solving Strategies
- Today's Puzzle Statistics
Today's Puzzle Difficulty: Challenging
Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!
Across Clues - Complete List
| No. | Clue | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | 1. Sound like heaven | 4 |
| 2A | 5. Game of observation for travel | 6 |
| 3A | 11. Ad free | 3 |
| 4A | 14. Brief in pants | 4 |
| 5A | 15. Correct thoroughly | 6 |
| 6A | 16. Bad feel | 3 |
| 7A | 17. Try to place connoisseurs? | 11 |
| 8A | 19. Cells in compound | 3 |
| 9A | 20. Checks with style | 5 |
| 10A | 21. To cop | 3 |
| 11A | 22. Competition, for starters | 5 |
| 12A | 24. York ___ | 5 |
| 13A | 26. Place recording | 6 |
| 14A | 27. Signals over game | 5 |
| 15A | 29. Maturity approaching | 5 |
| 16A | 31. Crows to relatives | 6 |
| 17A | 32. Free booze | 3 |
| 18A | 33. Confidentiality of letters? | 4 |
| 19A | 37. "Done well" | 5 |
| 20A | 38. Short for "info flight" | 3 |
| 21A | 39. Sponge bath | 5 |
| 22A | 40. Nothing doing | 4 |
| 23A | 41. Say "minus C" | 3 |
| 24A | 42. Set off | 6 |
| 25A | 43. Practice Japanese | 5 |
| 26A | 45. Equal roughly | 5 |
| 27A | 46. Into light | 6 |
| 28A | 49. Nags about noise? | 5 |
| 29A | 51. Land of Spot | 5 |
| 30A | 52. On-off signs | 3 |
| 31A | 53. Lines some over draw | 5 |
| 32A | 57. For repentance some feel | 3 |
| 33A | 58. Details insignificant contests | 11 |
| 34A | 61. Spending limits it | 3 |
| 35A | 62. Forum discussion, popular once | 6 |
| 36A | 63. Cut short | 4 |
| 37A | 64. Rock-___ | 3 |
| 38A | 65. Out with ate, ate, ate | 6 |
| 39A | 66. Website gift custom | 4 |
Across Clues - Strategic Hints
1A: "1. Sound like heaven"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a chordophone that has a triangular frame consisting of a sounding board and a pillar and a curved neck; the strings stretched between the neck and the soundbox are plucked with the fingers
- Similar words include: dwell, mouth organ, mouth harp
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2A: "5. Game of observation for travel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an overland journey by hunters (especially in africa)
- Similar words include: hunting expedition, campaign
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3A: "11. Ad free"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a protein manufactured exclusively by the prostate gland; psa is produced for the ejaculate where it liquifies the semen and allows sperm cells to swim freely; elevated levels of psa in blood serum are associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer
- Similar words include: prostate specific antigen
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4A: "14. Brief in pants"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5A: "15. Correct thoroughly"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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6A: "16. Bad feel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that aromatic bulb used as seasoning
- Similar words include: garlic, trouble, pain
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7A: "17. Try to place connoisseurs?"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8A: "19. Cells in compound"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (biochemistry) a long linear polymer of nucleotides found in the nucleus but mainly in the cytoplasm of a cell where it is associated with microsomes; it transmits genetic information from dna to the cytoplasm and controls certain chemical processes in the cell
- Similar words include: ribonucleic acid
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9A: "20. Checks with style"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a cloth having a crisscross design
- Similar words include: tartan
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10A: "21. To cop"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that have ownership or possession of
- Similar words include: have, possess, ain
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11A: "22. Competition, for starters"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12A: "24. York ___"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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13A: "26. Place recording"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that workplace for the teaching or practice of an art
- Similar words include: studio apartment
- Opposite of: location
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14A: "27. Signals over game"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a noisemaker (as at parties or games) that makes a loud noise when you blow through it
- Similar words include: tusk, trump, automobile horn
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15A: "29. Maturity approaching"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that fully developed or matured and ready to be eaten or used
- Similar words include: mature, advanced, ripe
- Opposite of: green
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16A: "31. Crows to relatives"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that large black bird with a straight bill and long wedge-shaped tail
- Similar words include: devour, prey, guttle
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17A: "32. Free booze"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a reformer who opposes the use of intoxicating beverages
- Similar words include: wry, prohibitionist, teetotal
- Opposite of: wet, sweet
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18A: "33. Confidentiality of letters?"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19A: "37. "Done well""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
- Similar words include: assassin, assassinator
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20A: "38. Short for "info flight""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a terrorist organization organized in 1959 by student activists who were dissatisfied with the moderate nationalism of the traditional basque party; want to create an independent homeland in spain's western pyrenees
- Similar words include: Euskadi ta Askatasuna, Basque Fatherland and Liberty, Basque Homeland and Freedom
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21A: "39. Sponge bath"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the dried fibrous part of the fruit of a plant of the genus luffa; used as a washing sponge or strainer
- Similar words include: loofah, loufah sponge, luffa
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22A: "40. Nothing doing"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling
- Similar words include: stagnate, dead, groundless
- Opposite of: run, work
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23A: "41. Say "minus C""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24A: "42. Set off"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that bear the expenses of
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25A: "43. Practice Japanese"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26A: "45. Equal roughly"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27A: "46. Into light"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28A: "49. Nags about noise?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the characteristic sounds made by a horse
- Similar words include: nicker, whinny, whicker
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29A: "51. Land of Spot"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a small island
- Similar words include: isle
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30A: "52. On-off signs"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a state in south central united states
- Similar words include: okeh, Oklahoma, Sooner State
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31A: "53. Lines some over draw"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a just detectable amount
- Similar words include: decipher, hint, hunt
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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32A: "57. For repentance some feel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that european strong-scented perennial herb with grey-green bitter-tasting leaves; an irritant similar to poison ivy
- Similar words include: repent, regret, sorrow
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33A: "58. Details insignificant contests"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34A: "61. Spending limits it"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a tight-fitting headdress
- Similar words include: hood, detonator, capital
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35A: "62. Forum discussion, popular once"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
36A: "63. Cut short"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a small piece of anything (especially a piece that has been snipped off)
- Similar words include: nip off, clip, snippet
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
37A: "64. Rock-___"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object)
- Similar words include: EL, altitude, elevation
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
38A: "65. Out with ate, ate, ate"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that live like a pig, in squalor
- Similar words include: farrow, devour, guttle
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
39A: "66. Website gift custom"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
Down Clues - Complete List
| No. | Clue | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1D | 1. URL starter | 4 |
| 2D | 2. Asian sea currently undergoing replenishment efforts | 4 |
| 3D | 3. Civil rights icon Parks | 4 |
| 4D | 4. Shift the gears of, in a way ... or a hint to this puzzle's Across clues | 12 |
| 5D | 5. ID in some data breaches | 3 |
| 6D | 6. Elite H.S. class covering the Constitution | 5 |
| 7D | 7. Visionary ... or what you'll need to return to when solving this puzzle's Down clues | 15 |
| 8D | 8. Loads | 4 |
| 9D | 9. Babe in the Hundred Acre Wood | 3 |
| 10D | 10. One advocated for by the National Prison Project | 6 |
| 11D | 11. Whittled (down) | 5 |
| 12D | 12. Biblical mount | 5 |
| 13D | 13. It's worth remembering! | 5 |
| 14D | 18. "No idea" | 6 |
| 15D | 23. Distinctive expression ... or a hint to this puzzle's Across clues | 12 |
| 16D | 25. Feature of San Francisco's Lombard Street | 3 |
| 17D | 26. Mole, e.g. | 3 |
| 18D | 27. Firm | 4 |
| 19D | 28. Like many cricket fields | 4 |
| 20D | 30. Plan to contribute to, for short | 3 |
| 21D | 31. One of 1,909 for Willie Mays, for short | 3 |
| 22D | 34. "___ the Explorer" | 4 |
| 23D | 35. Some distance away | 4 |
| 24D | 36. Declare | 3 |
| 25D | 38. "Oh no! A mouse!" | 3 |
| 26D | 39. What the second number indicates in men's jeans sizes | 6 |
| 27D | 41. Univ. with an annual Mystery Hunt | 3 |
| 28D | 42. Eager response to "Wanna join?" | 3 |
| 29D | 44. Goes nuts for | 6 |
| 30D | 46. Around | 5 |
| 31D | 47. Garden-variety | 5 |
| 32D | 48. Wasn't paying attention | 5 |
| 33D | 50. Lauder of cosmetics | 5 |
| 34D | 52. Designer Cassini | 4 |
| 35D | 54. "I don't really care / If ya think I'm strange / I ___ gonna change": Joan Jett | 4 |
| 36D | 55. N.F.L. commentator Collinsworth | 4 |
| 37D | 56. Arthur Ashe Courage Award, e.g. | 4 |
| 38D | 59. Letter after chi | 3 |
| 39D | 60. The "S" of E.S.T.: Abbr. | 3 |
Down Clues - Strategic Hints
1D: "1. URL starter"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a protocol (utilizing tcp) to transfer hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers
- Similar words include: hypertext transfer protocol
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2D: "2. Asian sea currently undergoing replenishment efforts"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3D: "3. Civil rights icon Parks"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that large genus of erect or climbing prickly shrubs including roses
- Similar words include: genus Rosa
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4D: "4. Shift the gears of, in a way ... or a hint to this puzzle's Across clues"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5D: "5. ID in some data breaches"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6D: "6. Elite H.S. class covering the Constitution"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7D: "7. Visionary ... or what you'll need to return to when solving this puzzle's Down clues"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8D: "8. Loads"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the sun (or solar disc) which was the deity of a monotheistic cult under the pharaoh akhenaten
- Similar words include: Aten
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9D: "9. Babe in the Hundred Acre Wood"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10D: "10. One advocated for by the National Prison Project"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that one of several resident of a dwelling (especially someone confined to a prison or hospital)
- Similar words include: yard bird, yardbird, convict
- Opposite of: outpatient
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11D: "11. Whittled (down)"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that decrease gradually or bit by bit
- Similar words include: whittle, peel, trim
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12D: "12. Biblical mount"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mountain peak in the southern sinai peninsula (7,500 feet high); it is believed to be the peak on which moses received the ten commandments
- Similar words include: Sinai Peninsula, Mount Sinai, Sinai Desert
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
13D: "13. It's worth remembering!"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a siege and massacre at a mission in san antonio in 1836; mexican forces under santa anna besieged and massacred american rebels who were fighting to make texas independent of mexico
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14D: "18. "No idea""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15D: "23. Distinctive expression ... or a hint to this puzzle's Across clues"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16D: "25. Feature of San Francisco's Lombard Street"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a radioactive transuranic element produced by bombarding plutonium with neutrons
- Similar words include: atomic number 99, E, Es
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17D: "26. Mole, e.g."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (military) a secret agent hired by a state to obtain information about its enemies or by a business to obtain industrial secrets from competitors
- Similar words include: descry, undercover agent, spot
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18D: "27. Firm"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
- Similar words include: knockout, heavy, difficult
- Opposite of: soft, easy
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19D: "28. Like many cricket fields"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it
- Similar words include: ovate, ellipse, prolate
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20D: "30. Plan to contribute to, for short"
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: Provisional IRA, Irish Republican Army, wrath
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21D: "31. One of 1,909 for Willie Mays, for short"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a run that is the result of the batter's performance
- Similar words include: run batted in
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22D: "34. "___ the Explorer""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23D: "35. Some distance away"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (old-fashioned) at or from or to a great distance; far
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24D: "36. Declare"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the chance to speak
- Similar words include: pronounce, articulate, aver
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25D: "38. "Oh no! A mouse!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26D: "39. What the second number indicates in men's jeans sizes"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the linear extent in space from one end to the other; the longest dimension of something that is fixed in place
- Similar words include: distance, duration
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27D: "41. Univ. with an annual Mystery Hunt"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an engineering university in cambridge
- Similar words include: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28D: "42. Eager response to "Wanna join?""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the united states federal department charged with conservation and the development of natural resources; created in 1849
- Similar words include: Interior, Interior Department, Department of the Interior
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29D: "44. Goes nuts for"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30D: "46. Around"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31D: "47. Garden-variety"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure
- Similar words include: common
- Opposite of: unusual
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32D: "48. Wasn't paying attention"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be able to accommodate for sleeping
- Similar words include: sleep, log Z's, catch some Z's
- Opposite of: wake
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33D: "50. Lauder of cosmetics"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34D: "52. Designer Cassini"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35D: "54. "I don't really care / If ya think I'm strange / I ___ gonna change": Joan Jett"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
36D: "55. N.F.L. commentator Collinsworth"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
37D: "56. Arthur Ashe Courage Award, e.g."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that catch sight of
- Similar words include: descry, spy, spot
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
38D: "59. Letter after chi"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a unit of pressure
- Similar words include: pounds per square inch
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
39D: "60. The "S" of E.S.T.: Abbr."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a communicable infection transmitted by sexual intercourse or genital contact
- Similar words include: venereal infection, dose, sexually transmitted disease
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
Expert Solving Strategies
Start Smart
Begin with fill-in-the-blank clues and short 3-4 letter words. These are your foundation.
Decode the Clues
Question marks indicate wordplay or puns. "Maybe" suggests multiple interpretations.
Use Cross-References
Let intersecting letters guide you. One correct answer unlocks several others.
Build Vocabulary
Common crossword words repeat. Learning them speeds up future solving.
Today's Puzzle Stats
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