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 (33 clues)
- Across Clues - Detailed Hints
- Down Clues Table (41 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. One who might use they/them pronouns, informally | 4 |
| 2A | 5. Sensation after getting a tattoo, for some | 4 |
| 3A | 9. How low can they go? | 5 |
| 4A | 14. Meteor shower? | 9 |
| 5A | 16. Stay under the covers all morning, to a Brit | 5 |
| 6A | 17. Taps | 15 |
| 7A | 19. Piano exercise | 5 |
| 8A | 20. "It's never paid to ___ against America": Warren Buffett | 3 |
| 9A | 21. Place-holding letters on a schedule | 3 |
| 10A | 22. Browbeaten | 5 |
| 11A | 24. Trams | 9 |
| 12A | 27. In the way of | 3 |
| 13A | 28. Drill | 4 |
| 14A | 29. Time to go fast? | 4 |
| 15A | 30. Audacious, informally | 6 |
| 16A | 33. "Midnight Cowboy" con man | 5 |
| 17A | 36. Paws | 13 |
| 18A | 40. Take a hankie to, say | 5 |
| 19A | 41. Nora who wrote "When Harry Met Sally ..." | 6 |
| 20A | 43. Counterpart of Brahma and Vishnu | 4 |
| 21A | 46. Expand, as dough | 4 |
| 22A | 48. Hawaiian fish with a palindromic name | 3 |
| 23A | 49. Dessert | 9 |
| 24A | 52. Deciduous tree often found in regions dominated by conifers | 5 |
| 25A | 54. Just a number, they say | 3 |
| 26A | 55. Long-lasting birth control option, in brief | 3 |
| 27A | 56. Turn over | 5 |
| 28A | 58. Naive regal gnat | 15 |
| 29A | 63. Creepy | 5 |
| 30A | 64. It separates China and South Korea | 9 |
| 31A | 65. Everybody's hands | 5 |
| 32A | 66. Impudence | 4 |
| 33A | 67. Stanch | 4 |
Across Clues - Strategic Hints
1A: "1. One who might use they/them pronouns, informally"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENBY
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2A: "5. Sensation after getting a tattoo, for some"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a contagious skin infection caused by the itch mite; characterized by persistent itching and skin irritation
- Similar words include: scabies, spoil, itching
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ITCH
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3A: "9. How low can they go?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an adult male singer with the lowest voice
- Similar words include: bass, basso, bass voice
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BASSI
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4A: "14. Meteor shower?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a magnifier of images of distant objects
- Similar words include: scope
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TELESCOPE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5A: "16. Stay under the covers all morning, to a Brit"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LIEIN
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6A: "17. Taps"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an argument offered in opposition to another argument
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COUNTERARGUMENT
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7A: "19. Piano exercise"
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!)
Answer: ETUDE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8A: "20. "It's never paid to ___ against America": Warren Buffett"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the money risked on a gamble
- Similar words include: reckon, wager, stake
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BET
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9A: "21. Place-holding letters on a schedule"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TBA
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10A: "22. Browbeaten"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that subdue, restrain, or overcome by affecting with a feeling of awe; frighten (as with threats)
- Similar words include: overawe, cow
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COWED
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11A: "24. Trams"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RETROCHIC
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12A: "27. In the way of"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
13A: "28. Drill"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a person who evokes boredom
- Similar words include: behave, brook, carry
- Opposite of: interest
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BORE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14A: "29. Time to go fast?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a period of 40 weekdays from ash wednesday to holy saturday
- Similar words include: Lententide, impart, loan
- Opposite of: borrow
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LENT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15A: "30. Audacious, informally"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BALLSY
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16A: "33. "Midnight Cowboy" con man"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RATSO
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17A: "36. Paws"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FLIPOFASWITCH
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18A: "40. Take a hankie to, say"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DABAT
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19A: "41. Nora who wrote "When Harry Met Sally ...""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EPHRON
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20A: "43. Counterpart of Brahma and Vishnu"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the destroyer; one of the three major divinities in the later hindu pantheon
- Similar words include: Shiva
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SIVA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21A: "46. Expand, as dough"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a growth in strength or number or importance
- Similar words include: arise, originate, resurrect
- Opposite of: descent, wane
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RISE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22A: "48. Hawaiian fish with a palindromic name"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that united states musician (born in japan) who married john lennon and collaborated with him on recordings (born in 1933)
- Similar words include: Yoko Ono
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ONO
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23A: "49. Dessert"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAIRYBACK
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24A: "52. Deciduous tree often found in regions dominated by conifers"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of several trees of the genus populus having leaves on flattened stalks so that they flutter in the lightest wind
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASPEN
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25A: "54. Just a number, they say"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that how long something has existed
- Similar words include: geezerhood, historic period, get on
- Opposite of: rejuvenate
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AGE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26A: "55. Long-lasting birth control option, in brief"
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!)
Answer: IUD
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27A: "56. Turn over"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that become turned or set on end
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: UPEND
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28A: "58. Naive regal gnat"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DRINKSALLAROUND
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29A: "63. Creepy"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that suggestive of the supernatural; mysterious
- Similar words include: eery
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EERIE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30A: "64. It separates China and South Korea"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YELLOWSEA
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31A: "65. Everybody's hands"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a particular instance of buying or selling
- Similar words include: bargain, divvy up, handle
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEALS
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32A: "66. Impudence"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an impudent or insolent rejoinder
- Similar words include: SAS, mouth, back talk
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SASS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33A: "67. Stanch"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes are removed
- Similar words include: root word, shank, bow
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STEM
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Down Clues - Complete List
| No. | Clue | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1D | 1. And so on, in brief | 3 |
| 2D | 2. Hero famously "red-pilled," in film | 3 |
| 3D | 3. Perceived Democratic electoral bloc | 8 |
| 4D | 4. Matchmaker in "Fiddler on the Roof" | 5 |
| 5D | 5. Like many summertime coffee orders | 4 |
| 6D | 6. Caped fighter | 6 |
| 7D | 7. Professional who's busiest in Apr. | 3 |
| 8D | 8. Tisanes | 8 |
| 9D | 9. Popeye's rival | 5 |
| 10D | 10. Making money or becoming famous, maybe | 3 |
| 11D | 11. Smolder | 6 |
| 12D | 12. Penalty box in hockey, slangily | 6 |
| 13D | 13. Unbroken | 6 |
| 14D | 15. Hoop alternative | 4 |
| 15D | 18. Neighbor of Switz. | 3 |
| 16D | 22. Something inside or outside a wine bar? | 3 |
| 17D | 23. Count of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" | 4 |
| 18D | 25. Unpredictable | 7 |
| 19D | 26. Gingham or seersucker | 5 |
| 20D | 28. Common policy at a neighborhood BBQ | 4 |
| 21D | 31. Remote sensing technology that uses lasers | 5 |
| 22D | 32. Eponymous Belgian resort town | 3 |
| 23D | 34. Cringeily cute | 4 |
| 24D | 35. Tiny slug? | 3 |
| 25D | 37. Units of electric charge | 8 |
| 26D | 38. Spray from a plane | 8 |
| 27D | 39. Sharpen | 4 |
| 28D | 42. Start to stick? | 3 |
| 29D | 43. Under a parasol, say | 6 |
| 30D | 44. "My feelings exactly" | 6 |
| 31D | 45. Host Meredith of "25 Words or Less" | 6 |
| 32D | 47. Cézanne painted a "Pyramid" of them | 6 |
| 33D | 50. "Oh no!" | 5 |
| 34D | 51. Clear stuff in a restaurant | 3 |
| 35D | 52. Prefix often meaning "gas" | 4 |
| 36D | 53. Flakes out? | 5 |
| 37D | 57. Thelma and Louise, e.g. | 4 |
| 38D | 59. Signifier of no value, in many programming languages | 3 |
| 39D | 60. Grazing area | 3 |
| 40D | 61. First name signifier? | 3 |
| 41D | 62. Counterpart of a sire, on a horse farm | 3 |
Down Clues - Strategic Hints
1D: "1. And so on, in brief"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETC
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2D: "2. Hero famously "red-pilled," in film"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (used as a combining form) recent or new
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NEO
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3D: "3. Perceived Democratic electoral bloc"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BLUEWALL
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4D: "4. Matchmaker in "Fiddler on the Roof""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YENTE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5D: "5. Like many summertime coffee orders"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that decorate with frosting
- Similar words include: frost, ice
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ICED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6D: "6. Caped fighter"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a matador or one of the supporting team during a bull fight
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TORERO
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7D: "7. Professional who's busiest in Apr."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an accountant who has passed certain examinations and met all other statutory and licensing requirements of a united states state to be certified by that state
- Similar words include: certified public accountant
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CPA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8D: "8. Tisanes"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HERBTEAS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9D: "9. Popeye's rival"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BLUTO
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10D: "10. Making money or becoming famous, maybe"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions
- Similar words include: target, intent, calculate
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AIM
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11D: "11. Smolder"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be noisy with activity
- Similar words include: boil, roll, hum
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SEETHE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12D: "12. Penalty box in hockey, slangily"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SINBIN
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13D: "13. Unbroken"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that constituting the undiminished entirety; lacking nothing essential especially not damaged; - bacon
- Similar words include: integral, inviolate, entire
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INTACT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14D: "15. Hoop alternative"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a man who is virile and sexually active
- Similar words include: scantling, he-man, rivet
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STUD
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15D: "18. Neighbor of Switz."
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GER
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16D: "22. Something inside or outside a wine bar?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a compartment at the front of a motor vehicle or locomotive where driver sits
- Similar words include: taxi, taxicab, hack
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CAB
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17D: "23. Count of "A Series of Unfortunate Events""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OLAF
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18D: "25. Unpredictable"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that liable to sudden unpredictable change
- Similar words include: planetary, mercurial, quicksilver
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERRATIC
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19D: "26. Gingham or seersucker"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers
- Similar words include: fabric, material, textile
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CLOTH
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20D: "28. Common policy at a neighborhood BBQ"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BYOB
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21D: "31. Remote sensing technology that uses lasers"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a measuring system that detects and locates objects on the same principle as radar but uses light from a laser; a potential technology for detecting air turbulence that can affect aircraft
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LIDAR
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22D: "32. Eponymous Belgian resort town"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a health resort near a spring or at the seaside
- Similar words include: watering place, health club, watering hole
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23D: "34. Cringeily cute"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that affectedly dainty or refined
- Similar words include: prim, mincing, niminy-piminy
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TWEE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24D: "35. Tiny slug?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a small drink
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SIP
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25D: "37. Units of electric charge"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the english physicist and chemist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1791-1867)
- Similar words include: Michael Faraday, Faraday
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FARADAYS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26D: "38. Spray from a plane"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CROPDUST
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27D: "39. Sharpen"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a whetstone made of fine gritstone; used for sharpening razors
- Similar words include: perfect
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HONE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28D: "42. Start to stick?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that negation of a word or group of words
- Similar words include: not
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NON
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29D: "43. Under a parasol, say"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that cast a shadow over
- Similar words include: shade off, shadow, shade
- Opposite of: unshaded
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SHADED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30D: "44. "My feelings exactly""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IAGREE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31D: "45. Host Meredith of "25 Words or Less""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: VIEIRA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32D: "47. Cézanne painted a "Pyramid" of them"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the bony skeleton of the head of vertebrates
- Similar words include: skull
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SKULLS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33D: "50. "Oh no!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YIKES
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34D: "51. Clear stuff in a restaurant"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport
- Similar words include: double-decker, omnibus, charabanc
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BUS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35D: "52. Prefix often meaning "gas""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AERO
Remember this word for future puzzles!
36D: "53. Flakes out?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals
- Similar words include: Snow, lead by the nose, coke
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SNOWS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
37D: "57. Thelma and Louise, e.g."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities
- Similar words include: chum, brother, pal up
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PALS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
38D: "59. Signifier of no value, in many programming languages"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a quantity of no importance
- Similar words include: naught, nothing, cipher
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NIL
Remember this word for future puzzles!
39D: "60. Grazing area"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a unit of length of thread or yarn
- Similar words include: pasture, ley, grazing land
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
40D: "61. First name signifier?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (meaning literally `born') used to indicate the maiden or family name of a married woman
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NEE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
41D: "62. Counterpart of a sire, on a horse farm"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea
- Similar words include: dike, decametre, dekametre
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DAM
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
33 Across Clues
41 Down Clues
74 Total Clues
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