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 (35 clues)
- Across Clues - Detailed Hints
- Down Clues Table (43 clues)
- Down Clues - Detailed Hints
- Expert Solving Strategies
- Today's Puzzle Statistics
Today's Puzzle Difficulty: Tricky
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. Uber alternative | 4 |
| 2A | 5. The class of '26, at the beginning of '26 | 3 |
| 3A | 8. Hosp. triage specialists | 6 |
| 4A | 14. One acting on impulse? | 4 |
| 5A | 15. Wasabi-coated tidbit, maybe | 3 |
| 6A | 16. Pittsburgh Pirates mascot | 6 |
| 7A | 17. *Peers | 8 |
| 8A | 19. Order to relax | 6 |
| 9A | 20. Group of reps | 3 |
| 10A | 21. Back-comb, in a way | 5 |
| 11A | 23. ___ mater | 4 |
| 12A | 24. *Number of years between Summer Olympics | 12 |
| 13A | 27. Brews | 6 |
| 14A | 30. Heated competition? | 4 |
| 15A | 31. Kilauea output | 4 |
| 16A | 32. Some porcelain pieces | 5 |
| 17A | 34. Shiba ___ (dog breed) | 3 |
| 18A | 37. *Number of Supreme Court justices | 15 |
| 19A | 41. Ethane or methane | 3 |
| 20A | 42. Belittle | 5 |
| 21A | 43. Conscious of systemic societal problems | 4 |
| 22A | 44. Big inits. in frozen desserts | 4 |
| 23A | 45. They're adjusted when truing a bicycle wheel | 6 |
| 24A | 47. *Guns N' Roses guitarist | 12 |
| 25A | 52. Beauty supply chain | 4 |
| 26A | 53. "Swell!" | 5 |
| 27A | 54. Under the weather | 3 |
| 28A | 57. Jackal-headed Egyptian deity | 6 |
| 29A | 60. What you'd need to press to make the starred clues and their answers match | 8 |
| 30A | 62. It was discovered by the Curies | 6 |
| 31A | 63. Kind of line at the beach | 3 |
| 32A | 64. Try a new course, say | 4 |
| 33A | 65. TikTok phenomena | 6 |
| 34A | 66. Guileful | 3 |
| 35A | 67. Drink with junmai and nigori variants | 4 |
Across Clues - Strategic Hints
1A: "1. Uber alternative"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money
- Similar words include: cab, taxicab, hack
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2A: "5. The class of '26, at the beginning of '26"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a soft silver-white or yellowish metallic element of the alkali metal group; turns yellow in air; occurs in celestite and strontianite
- Similar words include: atomic number 38, strontium, Sr
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3A: "8. Hosp. triage specialists"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4A: "14. One acting on impulse?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that long nerve fiber that conducts away from the cell body of the neuron
- Similar words include: axone
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5A: "15. Wasabi-coated tidbit, maybe"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that seed of a pea plant used for food
- Similar words include: pea plant
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6A: "16. Pittsburgh Pirates mascot"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that usually brightly colored zygodactyl tropical birds with short hooked beaks and the ability to mimic sounds
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7A: "17. *Peers"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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8A: "19. Order to relax"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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9A: "20. Group of reps"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a group of things of the same kind that belong together and are so used
- Similar words include: fixed, set up, localize
- Opposite of: rise
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10A: "21. Back-comb, in a way"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity)
- Similar words include: razz, coquette, vamper
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11A: "23. ___ mater"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12A: "24. *Number of years between Summer Olympics"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
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13A: "27. Brews"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a steep place (as on a hill)
- Similar words include: steep, engross, infuse
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14A: "30. Heated competition?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a meeting at which a number of athletic contests are held
- Similar words include: play, contact, get together
- Opposite of: diverge
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15A: "31. Kilauea output"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that rock that in its molten form (as magma) issues from volcanos; lava is what magma is called when it reaches the surface
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16A: "32. Some porcelain pieces"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern asia; the most populous country in the world
- Similar words include: Red China, Nationalist China, mainland China
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17A: "34. Shiba ___ (dog breed)"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18A: "37. *Number of Supreme Court justices"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19A: "41. Ethane or methane"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the state of matter distinguished from the solid and liquid states by: relatively low density and viscosity; relatively great expansion and contraction with changes in pressure and temperature; the ability to diffuse readily; and the spontaneous tendency to become distributed uniformly throughout any container
- Similar words include: boast, gun, accelerator pedal
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20A: "42. Belittle"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
- Similar words include: humiliate, mortify, humble
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21A: "43. Conscious of systemic societal problems"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be awake, be alert, be there
- Similar words include: stir up, awake, wake
- Opposite of: fall asleep, cause to sleep
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22A: "44. Big inits. in frozen desserts"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23A: "45. They're adjusted when truing a bicycle wheel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that support consisting of a radial member of a wheel joining the hub to the rim
- Similar words include: wheel spoke, spoke, radius
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24A: "47. *Guns N' Roses guitarist"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25A: "52. Beauty supply chain"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26A: "53. "Swell!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27A: "54. Under the weather"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an often persistent bodily disorder or disease; a cause for complaining
- Similar words include: badly, complaint, sick
- Opposite of: well
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28A: "57. Jackal-headed Egyptian deity"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that egyptian god of tombs and ruler of the underworld; usually depicted as a man with the head of a jackal
- Similar words include: Anpu
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29A: "60. What you'd need to press to make the starred clues and their answers match"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30A: "62. It was discovered by the Curies"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores
- Similar words include: Ra, atomic number 88
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31A: "63. Kind of line at the beach"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a browning of the skin resulting from exposure to the rays of the sun
- Similar words include: tangent, suntan, topaz
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32A: "64. Try a new course, say"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that turn sharply; change direction abruptly
- Similar words include: swerve, trend, slue
- Opposite of: back
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33A: "65. TikTok phenomena"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a general direction in which something tends to move
- Similar words include: drift, veer, trend
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34A: "66. Guileful"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that marked by skill in deception
- Similar words include: foxy, dodgy, knavish
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35A: "67. Drink with junmai and nigori variants"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a reason for wanting something done
- Similar words include: rice beer, interest, saki
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
Down Clues - Complete List
| No. | Clue | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1D | 1. Array behind the counter at a tavern | 4 |
| 2D | 2. Wheel assembly component | 4 |
| 3D | 3. Strike from a list | 4 |
| 4D | 4. Important contacts | 3 |
| 5D | 5. Many fast pitches | 6 |
| 6D | 6. Majestic | 5 |
| 7D | 7. Stark daughter played by Sophie Turner on "Game of Thrones" | 5 |
| 8D | 8. Fuel economy org. | 3 |
| 9D | 9. Tattletale | 3 |
| 10D | 10. Imagined while sleeping | 6 |
| 11D | 11. Toothbrush handle? | 5 |
| 12D | 12. Cranberry-tinged cocktail | 5 |
| 13D | 13. Criminally good deal | 5 |
| 14D | 18. "Quit it!" | 4 |
| 15D | 22. Its fur might trim a royal robe | 6 |
| 16D | 24. College faculty head | 4 |
| 17D | 25. Email status | 4 |
| 18D | 26. Opposite of "nah" | 4 |
| 19D | 27. Real grind | 4 |
| 20D | 28. Seville snack | 4 |
| 21D | 29. Holiday preceders | 4 |
| 22D | 32. Handout with a kids' menu | 6 |
| 23D | 33. Bulls and bucks | 3 |
| 24D | 34. Avoids injury, say | 4 |
| 25D | 35. Personification of victory | 4 |
| 26D | 36. Wields | 4 |
| 27D | 38. Formal accord | 4 |
| 28D | 39. Actress Jacobson of "Broad City" | 4 |
| 29D | 40. Furry "Star Wars" creature | 4 |
| 30D | 44. Container at an airport checkpoint, for short | 6 |
| 31D | 45. Smooth and glossy | 6 |
| 32D | 46. Seminar head, informally | 4 |
| 33D | 47. Ice cream purchase | 5 |
| 34D | 48. Forearm-related, in a way | 5 |
| 35D | 49. Practice piece | 5 |
| 36D | 50. Tree "houses" | 5 |
| 37D | 51. Palace, in Hindi | 5 |
| 38D | 54. Retail outlet with a store map at its entrance | 4 |
| 39D | 55. Garlic relative | 4 |
| 40D | 56. Strings of yore | 4 |
| 41D | 58. T-shaped birth control insert | 3 |
| 42D | 59. Texting inits. | 3 |
| 43D | 61. Fixtures at sports bars | 3 |
Down Clues - Strategic Hints
1D: "1. Array behind the counter at a tavern"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (military) signal to turn the lights out
- Similar words include: beg, hydrant, tap
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2D: "2. Wheel assembly component"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a shaft on which a wheel rotates
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3D: "3. Strike from a list"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4D: "4. Important contacts"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an agency in the department of justice that enforces laws and regulations for the admission of foreign-born persons to the united states
- Similar words include: In, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Hoosier State
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5D: "5. Many fast pitches"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that plausible glib talk (especially useful to a salesperson)
- Similar words include: patter, spiel, play
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6D: "6. Majestic"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler
- Similar words include: royal, imperial, majestic
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7D: "7. Stark daughter played by Sophie Turner on "Game of Thrones""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8D: "8. Fuel economy org."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an independent federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment
- Similar words include: Environmental Protection Agency
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9D: "9. Tattletale"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of various long-tailed rodents similar to but larger than a mouse
- Similar words include: dirty dog, lowlife, git
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10D: "10. Imagined while sleeping"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy
- Similar words include: woolgather, dream, stargaze
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11D: "11. Toothbrush handle?"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12D: "12. Cranberry-tinged cocktail"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
13D: "13. Criminally good deal"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an advantageous purchase
- Similar words include: slip, bargain, buy
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14D: "18. "Quit it!""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the event of something ending
- Similar words include: cease, stop consonant, period
- Opposite of: begin, continuant consonant
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15D: "22. Its fur might trim a royal robe"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the expensive white fur of the ermine
- Similar words include: shorttail weasel, Mustela erminea
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16D: "24. College faculty head"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an administrator in charge of a division of a university or college
- Similar words include: James Byron Dean, James Dean, doyen
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17D: "25. Email status"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that 100 senti equal 1 kroon in estonia
- Similar words include: get off, charge, send off
- Opposite of: unsent
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18D: "26. Opposite of "nah""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that not only so, but
- Similar words include: yea
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19D: "27. Real grind"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that work doggedly or persistently
- Similar words include: slug, pad, keep one's shoulder to the wheel
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20D: "28. Seville snack"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the thin fibrous bark of the paper mulberry and pipturus albidus
- Similar words include: tapa bark, tappa bark, tappa
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21D: "29. Holiday preceders"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (old testament) adam's wife in judeo-christian mythology: the first woman and mother of the human race; god created eve from adam's rib and placed adam and eve in the garden of eden
- Similar words include: evening, eventide, even
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22D: "32. Handout with a kids' menu"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that writing implement consisting of a colored stick of composition wax used for writing and drawing
- Similar words include: wax crayon
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23D: "33. Bulls and bucks"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses; the most difficult gas to liquefy; occurs in economically extractable amounts in certain natural gases (as those found in texas and kansas)
- Similar words include: atomic number 2, helium, he
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24D: "34. Avoids injury, say"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25D: "35. Personification of victory"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (greek mythology) winged goddess of victory; identified with roman victoria
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26D: "36. Wields"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the act of using
- Similar words include: habit, purpose, usage
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27D: "38. Formal accord"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a written agreement between two states or sovereigns
- Similar words include: accord, treaty
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28D: "39. Actress Jacobson of "Broad City""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29D: "40. Furry "Star Wars" creature"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30D: "44. Container at an airport checkpoint, for short"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31D: "45. Smooth and glossy"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light
- Similar words include: silky, sleek, slick
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32D: "46. Seminar head, informally"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that someone who is a member of the faculty at a college or university
- Similar words include: professor
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33D: "47. Ice cream purchase"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a united states liquid unit equal to 32 fluid ounces; four quarts equal one gallon
- Similar words include: dry quart
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34D: "48. Forearm-related, in a way"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that relating to or near the ulna
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35D: "49. Practice piece"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a short composition for a solo instrument; intended as an exercise or to demonstrate technical virtuosity
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
36D: "50. Tree "houses""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young
- Similar words include: nestle, draw close, nest
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
37D: "51. Palace, in Hindi"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
38D: "54. Retail outlet with a store map at its entrance"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
39D: "55. Garlic relative"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that plant having a large slender white bulb and flat overlapping dark green leaves; used in cooking; believed derived from the wild allium ampeloprasum
- Similar words include: Allium porrum, scallion
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
40D: "56. Strings of yore"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a harp used by ancient greeks for accompaniment
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
41D: "58. T-shaped birth control insert"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that contraceptive device consisting of a piece of bent plastic or metal that is inserted through the vagina into the uterus
- Similar words include: intrauterine device
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
42D: "59. Texting inits."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a grey lustrous metallic element of the rare earth group; is used in special alloys; occurs in monazite and bastnasite
- Similar words include: Sm, samarium, Master of Science
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Remember this word for future puzzles!
43D: "61. Fixtures at sports bars"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that broadcasting visual images of stationary or moving objects; ; - ernie kovacs
- Similar words include: telly, television set, TV
- 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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