Search Clues

Showing posts sorted by date for query ovate. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query ovate. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Thursday, May 21, 2026

XWordHint Crossword Answers May 21, 2026 | Expert Breakdown & Tips

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: Medium

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. Gossiped-about duo 4
2A 5. River whose southernmost source is found in Burundi 4
3A 9. Animal that expresses anger by spitting 5
4A 14. Curbside call 4
5A 15. Egg's outline 4
6A 16. Traditional Vietnamese garment whose name means "long shirt" 5
7A 17. 2000 Eminem single with lines from his "biggest fan" 4
8A 18. St. Benedict, for one 4
9A 19. Central meeting points 5
10A 20. timiL 12
11A 23. 50¢ or $1: Abbr. 3
12A 24. Fish more formally known as a batomorph 3
13A 25. Capital of Portugal, to natives 6
14A 29. Crown of jewels 6
15A 31. Penultimate Greek letter 3
16A 33. One of four seen on Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" 3
17A 34. Goat's cry 3
18A 35. Golfer's suppor- 9
19A 38. Move like a fox 5
20A 40. Get a lode of this! 3
21A 41. John from Britain 5
22A 42. Evade 9
23A 44. "Bad" beginning 3
24A 45. Like news that everyone already knows 3
25A 46. Legal boundaries? 3
26A 47. Kind of cat with a black-and-white coat 6
27A 50. More melted, as a marshmallow 6
28A 53. Tree alongside a ski run 3
29A 54. Bro, e.g. 3
30A 55. P | u | n | c | h | e | s 12
31A 59. Sound of a perfect basketball shot 5
32A 62. "Beware the ___ of a patient man": John Dryden 4
33A 63. Ordered 4
34A 64. Increase, as interest 5
35A 65. German Ms. 4
36A 66. Pupil's surroundings 4
37A 67. Environmentalist Adams 5
38A 68. Site for many stars? 4
39A 69. Sounds of disapproval 4

Across Clues - Strategic Hints

1A: "1. Gossiped-about duo"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a distinct part that can be specified separately in a group of things that could be enumerated on a list
  • Similar words include: point, particular, detail
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ITEM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2A: "5. River whose southernmost source is found in Burundi"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the world's longest river (4150 miles); flows northward through eastern africa into the mediterranean; the nile river valley in egypt was the site of the world's first great civilization
  • Similar words include: Nile River
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NILE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3A: "9. Animal that expresses anger by spitting"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that wild or domesticated south american cud-chewing animal related to camels but smaller and lacking a hump
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LLAMA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4A: "14. Curbside call"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

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, hack, taxicab
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAXI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5A: "15. Egg's outline"

4 letters Category: Common Word

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: ovoid, elliptical, ovate
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OVAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6A: "16. Traditional Vietnamese garment whose name means "long shirt""

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AODAI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7A: "17. 2000 Eminem single with lines from his "biggest fan""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STAN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8A: "18. St. Benedict, for one"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a male religious living in a cloister and devoting himself to contemplation and prayer and work
  • Similar words include: Thelonious Sphere Monk, Thelonious Monk, monastic
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MONK

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9A: "19. Central meeting points"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a connecting point at which several lines come together
  • Similar words include: client, node, knob
  • Opposite of: antinode
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NODES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10A: "20. timiL"

12 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BACKWARDSCAP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11A: "23. 50¢ or $1: Abbr."

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AMT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12A: "24. Fish more formally known as a batomorph"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a column of light (as from a beacon)
  • Similar words include: shaft of light, irradiation, light beam
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RAY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13A: "25. Capital of Portugal, to natives"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that capital and largest city and economic and cultural center of portugal; a major port in western portugal on tagus river where it broadens and empties into the atlantic
  • Similar words include: Lisbon, capital of Portugal
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LISBOA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14A: "29. Crown of jewels"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an ornamental jeweled headdress signifying sovereignty
  • Similar words include: crown
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DIADEM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15A: "31. Penultimate Greek letter"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a unit of pressure
  • Similar words include: pounds per square inch
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PSI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16A: "33. One of four seen on Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man""

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb
  • Similar words include: build up, sleeve, gird
  • Opposite of: disarm
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17A: "34. Goat's cry"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MAA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18A: "35. Golfer's suppor-"

9 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CUTOFFTEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19A: "38. Move like a fox"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that lie in wait, lie in ambush, behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
  • Similar words include: malinger, lurk
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SKULK

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20A: "40. Get a lode of this!"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a mineral that contains metal that is valuable enough to be mined
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ORE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21A: "41. John from Britain"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELTON

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22A: "42. Evade"

9 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a very short skirt
  • Similar words include: mini
  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MINISKIRT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23A: "44. "Bad" beginning"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24A: "45. Like news that everyone already knows"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that past times (especially in the phrase `in days of old')
  • Similar words include: sometime, former, one-time
  • Opposite of: young, new
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OLD

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25A: "46. Legal boundaries?"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object)
  • Similar words include: EL, elevated railway, elevated
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26A: "47. Kind of cat with a black-and-white coat"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that semiformal evening dress for men
  • Similar words include: dinner jacket, black tie, tux
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TUXEDO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27A: "50. More melted, as a marshmallow"

6 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that soft and sticky
  • Similar words include: icky, gooey
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GOOIER

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28A: "53. Tree alongside a ski run"

3 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that nonresinous wood of a fir tree
  • Similar words include: fir tree, true fir
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FIR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29A: "54. Bro, e.g."

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a person's brother or sister
  • Similar words include: blood relation, blood relative, cognate
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SIB

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30A: "55. P | u | n | c | h | e | s"

12 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STRIPEDSOCKS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31A: "59. Sound of a perfect basketball shot"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a brushing or rustling sound
  • Similar words include: lap, swoosh, posh
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SWISH

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32A: "62. "Beware the ___ of a patient man": John Dryden"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a feeling of intense anger
  • Similar words include: fierceness, madness, hysteria
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FURY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33A: "63. Ordered"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a chadic language spoken in northern nigeria
  • Similar words include: bid, entreat, press
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BADE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34A: "64. Increase, as interest"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that tightly woven fabric with raised cords
  • Similar words include: temper, irritation, offend
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PIQUE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35A: "65. German Ms."

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a german courtesy title or form of address for an adult woman
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FRAU

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36A: "66. Pupil's surroundings"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals
  • Similar words include: fleur-de-lis, sword lily, iris diaphragm
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IRIS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37A: "67. Environmentalist Adams"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANSEL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

38A: "68. Site for many stars?"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a sharp high-pitched cry (especially by a dog)
  • Similar words include: yelping, yap, yip
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YELP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

39A: "69. Sounds of disapproval"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that utter `tsk,' `tut,' or `tut-tut,' as in disapproval
  • Similar words include: tut, tut-tut, tsk
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TSKS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

Down Clues - Complete List

No. Clue Letters
1D 1. Short negative review 6
2D 2. Floor covering in a Japanese tearoom 6
3D 3. "Bingo!" 11
4D 4. Stole material 4
5D 5. Southern denial 6
6D 6. Something tickled on a piano 5
7D 7. "Buy ___. They're not making it anymore" (old saying) 4
8D 8. Philanthropic group with a clock face in its logo 4
9D 9. The so-called "Pineapple Isle" 5
10D 10. Goes around and around 5
11D 11. Make sense, with "up" 3
12D 12. "Maggie ___," classic folk song covered by the Beatles 3
13D 13. ChatGPT, Claude, etc. 3
14D 21. Inflicts 6
15D 22. Muse of history 4
16D 26. Lasting damage from a tough experience, metaphorically 11
17D 27. Milkshake flavor 4
18D 28. Gospel shout 4
19D 30. "Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes" painter, 1945 4
20D 31. Contented sounds 5
21D 32. "Changed my mind," in editing notation 4
22D 35. Curl 4
23D 36. Hip-knee connectors 6
24D 37. Source of linseed oil 4
25D 38. It's all a haze 4
26D 39. Drug bust unit 4
27D 43. Model Miranda 4
28D 47. Make neat 6
29D 48. Large-eyed African antelope with a duplicative name 6
30D 49. Fixate 6
31D 51. Give out 5
32D 52. Neighbor of Ricky and Lucy, on 1950s TV 5
33D 53. Far from house-trained 5
34D 56. Dodgy 4
35D 57. 100% 4
36D 58. End piece? 4
37D 59. Belinda's business on "The White Lotus" 3
38D 60. Prevail 3
39D 61. Some test figs. 3

Down Clues - Strategic Hints

1D: "1. Short negative review"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ITSBAD

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2D: "2. Floor covering in a Japanese tearoom"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TATAMI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3D: "3. "Bingo!""

11 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EXACTAMUNDO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4D: "4. Stole material"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the expensive fur of a mink
  • Similar words include: mink coat
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MINK

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5D: "5. Southern denial"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NOMAAM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6D: "6. Something tickled on a piano"

5 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
  • Similar words include: pearl, tusk, bone
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IVORY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7D: "7. "Buy ___. They're not making it anymore" (old saying)"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the land on which real estate is located
  • Similar words include: realm, down, commonwealth
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAND

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8D: "8. Philanthropic group with a clock face in its logo"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male; called `elk' in europe and `moose' in north america
  • Similar words include: Cervus elaphus, Alces alces, Cervus elaphus canadensis
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELKS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9D: "9. The so-called "Pineapple Isle""

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an island of central hawaii; a pineapple-growing area
  • Similar words include: Lanai Island
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LANAI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10D: "10. Goes around and around"

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that fastener consisting of a metal ring for lining a small hole to permit the attachment of cords or lines
  • Similar words include: iteration, intertwine, loop topology
  • Opposite of: open circuit, uncoil
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LOOPS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11D: "11. Make sense, with "up""

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders
  • Similar words include: minimal brain damage, append, sum
  • Opposite of: subtract, take away
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADD

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12D: "12. "Maggie ___," classic folk song covered by the Beatles"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MAE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13D: "13. ChatGPT, Claude, etc."

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an agency of the united states army responsible for providing timely and relevant and accurate and synchronized intelligence to tactical and operational and strategic level commanders
  • Similar words include: Army Intelligence, three-toed sloth, artificial insemination
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AIS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14D: "21. Inflicts"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
  • Similar words include: wreak, work, play
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WREAKS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15D: "22. Muse of history"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (greek mythology) the muse of history
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CLIO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16D: "26. Lasting damage from a tough experience, metaphorically"

11 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BATTLESCARS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17D: "27. Milkshake flavor"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that chocolate cookie with white cream filling
  • Similar words include: oreo cookie
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OREO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18D: "28. Gospel shout"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a primeval egyptian personification of air and breath; worshipped especially at thebes
  • Similar words include: Amun, Amon
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AMEN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19D: "30. "Fountain of Milk Spreading Itself Uselessly on Three Shoes" painter, 1945"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that surrealist spanish painter (1904-1989)
  • Similar words include: Salvador Dali
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DALI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20D: "31. Contented sounds"

5 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a low vibrating sound typical of a contented cat
  • Similar words include: birr, whir, whiz
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PURRS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21D: "32. "Changed my mind," in editing notation"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that printing: cancel, as of a correction or deletion
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STET

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22D: "35. Curl"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a structure consisting of something wound in a continuous series of loops
  • Similar words include: scroll, curlicue, gyre
  • Opposite of: uncoil
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COIL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23D: "36. Hip-knee connectors"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the longest and thickest bone of the human skeleton; extends from the pelvis to the knee
  • Similar words include: thighbone, femoris, femur
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FEMURS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24D: "37. Source of linseed oil"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that fiber of the flax plant that is made into thread and woven into linen fabric
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FLAX

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25D: "38. It's all a haze"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that air pollution by a mixture of smoke and fog
  • Similar words include: smogginess
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SMOG

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26D: "39. Drug bust unit"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that one thousand grams; the basic unit of mass adopted under the systeme international d'unites
  • Similar words include: kg, kilogram
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KILO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27D: "43. Model Miranda"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KERR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28D: "47. Make neat"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TIDYUP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29D: "48. Large-eyed African antelope with a duplicative name"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DIKDIK

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30D: "49. Fixate"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that haunt like a ghost; pursue
  • Similar words include: haunt, ghost
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OBSESS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31D: "51. Give out"

5 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an important question that is in dispute and must be settled
  • Similar words include: topic, egress, subject
  • Opposite of: recall
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ISSUE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32D: "52. Neighbor of Ricky and Lucy, on 1950s TV"

5 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETHEL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33D: "53. Far from house-trained"

5 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that wild and menacing
  • Similar words include: ferine, savage
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FERAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34D: "56. Dodgy"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that subject to accident or chance or change
  • Similar words include: fluky, flukey, chancy
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IFFY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35D: "57. 100%"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that free of extraneous elements of any kind
  • Similar words include: everlasting, thoroughgoing, sodding
  • Opposite of: unsaturated, impure
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PURE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36D: "58. End piece?"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a notice of someone's death; usually includes a short biography
  • Similar words include: necrology, obituary
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OBIT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37D: "59. Belinda's business on "The White Lotus""

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a health resort near a spring or at the seaside
  • Similar words include: health spa, watering hole, resort hotel
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

38D: "60. Prevail"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a victory (as in a race or other competition)
  • Similar words include: bring home the bacon, acquire, advance
  • Opposite of: fall back, losings
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WIN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

39D: "61. Some test figs."

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a measure of a person's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test; the ratio of a person's mental age to their chronological age (multiplied by 100)
  • Similar words include: IQ, intelligence quotient, I.Q.
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IQS

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

39 Across Clues
39 Down Clues
78 Total Clues

More NYT Crossword Help

Looking for more puzzle solutions? Check out our comprehensive archive of NYT crossword hints and answers. We update daily with expert analysis and solving strategies.

Disclaimer: Crossword clues and grid © The New York Times. This site provides hints and educational content for puzzle enthusiasts. XWordHint is not affiliated with The New York Times.

Last updated: May 21, 2026 at 07:05 AM

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

XWordHint Crossword Answers February 24, 2026 | Expert Breakdown & Tips

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: Moderate

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. Utter rubbish 5
2A 6. Yellowish color for old computer graphics 5
3A 11. Showing a smirk, say 3
4A 14. "Make that two!" 5
5A 15. Actress Watts of "The Friend" 5
6A 16. Half of a giggle 3
7A 17. Nuyoricans, e.g. 11
8A 19. Doc who's seen for sinusitis 3
9A 20. Went on the fritz 4
10A 21. Grand project begun by the London Philological Society, in brief 3
11A 22. Snowman in "Frozen" 4
12A 24. Fender Stratocaster, e.g. 14
13A 29. Its base unit is the kilogram 4
14A 30. Self-written life story, informally 7
15A 31. Deer ___ (road sign) 4
16A 33. Otherwise called, in brief 3
17A 34. Brand of squishy balls 4
18A 35. Involuntary movement 3
19A 36. "The Disrobing of Christ," e.g. 7
20A 40. Fish in some onigiri 3
21A 41. One way to leave a door 4
22A 43. Asset for a thrower 3
23A 44. Old tape players 4
24A 46. Tiny swine 7
25A 48. One of the matriarchs in Judaism 4
26A 50. Thyroid, e.g. 14
27A 54. Oft-discarded part of an orange 4
28A 55. Some reproductive cells 3
29A 56. Baby ones are joeys, familiarly 4
30A 58. Sprightly dance 3
31A 59. Dress for a soirée, e.g. 11
32A 63. Prefix with sex or brow 3
33A 64. Protection against flooding 5
34A 65. Group of smarties 5
35A 66. "___ Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" 3
36A 67. Coffeehouse chain that owns the domain coffee.com 5
37A 68. Inch (up) 5

Across Clues - Strategic Hints

1A: "1. Utter rubbish"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that merchandise that is shoddy or inferior
  • Similar words include: shlock, schlock
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DRECK

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2A: "6. Yellowish color for old computer graphics"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a deep yellow color
  • Similar words include: gold, yellow-brown, brownish-yellow
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AMBER

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3A: "11. Showing a smirk, say"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that humorously sarcastic or mocking
  • Similar words include: ironic, dry, ironical
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WRY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4A: "14. "Make that two!""

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: METOO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5A: "15. Actress Watts of "The Friend""

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the mother-in-law of ruth whose story is told in the book of ruth in the old testament
  • Similar words include: Noemi
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NAOMI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6A: "16. Half of a giggle"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7A: "17. Nuyoricans, e.g."

11 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETHNICGROUP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8A: "19. Doc who's seen for sinusitis"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9A: "20. Went on the fritz"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
  • Similar words include: break, pop off, kick the bucket
  • Opposite of: be born
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DIED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10A: "21. Grand project begun by the London Philological Society, in brief"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an unabridged dictionary constructed on historical principles
  • Similar words include: O.E.D., Oxford English Dictionary
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11A: "22. Snowman in "Frozen""

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OLAF

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12A: "24. Fender Stratocaster, e.g."

14 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELECTRICGUITAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13A: "29. Its base unit is the kilogram"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
  • Similar words include: spate, deal, aggregate
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MASS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14A: "30. Self-written life story, informally"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AUTOBIO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15A: "31. Deer ___ (road sign)"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: XING

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16A: "33. Otherwise called, in brief"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AKA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17A: "34. Brand of squishy balls"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NERF

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18A: "35. Involuntary movement"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a local and habitual twitching especially in the face
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TIC

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19A: "36. "The Disrobing of Christ," e.g."

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELGRECO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20A: "40. Fish in some onigiri"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

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 (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EEL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21A: "41. One way to leave a door"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that slightly open
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AJAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22A: "43. Asset for a thrower"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions
  • Similar words include: object, take aim, target
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AIM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23A: "44. Old tape players"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a magnetic tape recorder for recording (and playing back) tv programs
  • Similar words include: videocassette recorder, VCR
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: VCRS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24A: "46. Tiny swine"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MINIPIG

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25A: "48. One of the matriarchs in Judaism"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEAH

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26A: "50. Thyroid, e.g."

14 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENDOCRINEGLAND

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27A: "54. Oft-discarded part of an orange"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most flowering plants
  • Similar words include: nitty-gritty, heart, substance
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PITH

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28A: "55. Some reproductive cells"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the female reproductive cell; the female gamete
  • Similar words include: ovum, egg cell
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OVA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29A: "56. Baby ones are joeys, familiarly"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ROOS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30A: "58. Sprightly dance"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that music in three-four time for dancing a jig
  • Similar words include: gigue
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: JIG

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31A: "59. Dress for a soirée, e.g."

11 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EVENINGGOWN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32A: "63. Prefix with sex or brow"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: UNI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33A: "64. Protection against flooding"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a formal reception of visitors or guests (as at a royal court)
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEVEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34A: "65. Group of smarties"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a faint constellation in the polar region of the southern hemisphere and containing part of the large magellanic cloud
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MENSA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35A: "66. "___ Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band""

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SGT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36A: "67. Coffeehouse chain that owns the domain coffee.com"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PEETS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37A: "68. Inch (up)"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric
  • Similar words include: crawl, mouse, spook
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CREEP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

Down Clues - Complete List

No. Clue Letters
1D 1. Contacted quickly online, informally 4
2D 2. Fix, as shoelaces 5
3D 3. Blues legend Waters 5
4D 4. Formally denounce 7
5D 5. Carp in a Japanese pond 3
6D 6. Brings to a boil? 6
7D 7. ___ Gras 5
8D 8. Honeybun 3
9D 9. LiMu ___ (insurance bird) 3
10D 10. Remove, as a page of a notebook 6
11D 11. Brew that's often a little cloudy and fruity 9
12D 12. Festivals often featuring jousting knights, for short 9
13D 13. Nevertheless 3
14D 18. Beds that might have wheels 4
15D 23. Either bronze animal in front of the Art Institute of Chicago 4
16D 25. Word after rib or batting 4
17D 26. Centerpiece of a birthday celebration 4
18D 27. Green dip, slangily 4
19D 28. [Hi-lar-ious!] 4
20D 31. President of China beginning in 2013 9
21D 32. "This is pretty cool!" 9
22D 33. Asset for a thrower 3
23D 35. Make friendly to humans 4
24D 37. Hideout 4
25D 38. Supermodel Hadid 4
26D 39. Avocado-shaped 4
27D 42. Civil disturbance 4
28D 45. Juice box? 7
29D 47. I.T. pro's offering 6
30D 48. Imposes, as a tax 6
31D 49. Jennifer who wrote "A Visit From the Goon Squad" 4
32D 51. Pretty large jazz combo 5
33D 52. Whom a diary is often shown to 5
34D 53. Search for groundwater, in a way 5
35D 57. Jacket closer 4
36D 58. Au ___ (how roast beef may be served) 3
37D 60. Shape for flying geese 3
38D 61. Apple taster in Eden 3
39D 62. Car brand with the Hummer E.V. 3

Down Clues - Strategic Hints

1D: "1. Contacted quickly online, informally"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DMED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2D: "2. Fix, as shoelaces"

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that tie again or anew
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RETIE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3D: "3. Blues legend Waters"

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETHEL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4D: "4. Formally denounce"

7 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that express strong disapproval of
  • Similar words include: objurgate, sentence, excoriate
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CONDEMN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5D: "5. Carp in a Japanese pond"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KOI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6D: "6. Brings to a boil?"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance
  • Similar words include: choler, ire, ira
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANGERS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7D: "7. ___ Gras"

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MARDI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8D: "8. Honeybun"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt
  • Similar words include: razz, hiss, Bronx cheer
  • Opposite of: applaud
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BOO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9D: "9. LiMu ___ (insurance bird)"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of various systems of units for measuring electricity and magnetism
  • Similar words include: electromagnetic unit, Dromaius novaehollandiae, Emu novaehollandiae
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EMU

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10D: "10. Remove, as a page of a notebook"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIPOUT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11D: "11. Brew that's often a little cloudy and fruity"

9 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHEATBEER

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12D: "12. Festivals often featuring jousting knights, for short"

9 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RENFAIRES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13D: "13. Nevertheless"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that up to the present time
  • Similar words include: heretofore, up to now, in time
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YET

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14D: "18. Beds that might have wheels"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a sheath worn to protect a finger
  • Similar words include: fingerstall, camp bed, crib
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COTS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15D: "23. Either bronze animal in front of the Art Institute of Chicago"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that large gregarious predatory feline of africa and india having a tawny coat with a shaggy mane in the male
  • Similar words include: Panthera leo, Leo, king of beasts
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LION

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16D: "25. Word after rib or batting"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals can be kept
  • Similar words include: batting cage, cage in, John Milton Cage Jr.
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CAGE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17D: "26. Centerpiece of a birthday celebration"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a block of solid substance (such as soap or wax)
  • Similar words include: coat, patty, bar
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CAKE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18D: "27. Green dip, slangily"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GUAC

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19D: "28. [Hi-lar-ious!]"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ROFL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20D: "31. President of China beginning in 2013"

9 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: XIJINPING

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21D: "32. "This is pretty cool!""

9 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ICANDIGIT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22D: "33. Asset for a thrower"

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a human limb; technically the part of the superior limb between the shoulder and the elbow but commonly used to refer to the whole superior limb
  • Similar words include: branch, limb, gird
  • Opposite of: disarm
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23D: "35. Make friendly to humans"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that correct by punishment or discipline
  • Similar words include: domesticize, meek, reclaim
  • Opposite of: wild
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAME

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24D: "37. Hideout"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the habitation of wild animals
  • Similar words include: den
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAIR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25D: "38. Supermodel Hadid"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GIGI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26D: "39. Avocado-shaped"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

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: ellipse, egg-shaped, ovate
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OVAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27D: "42. Civil disturbance"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a public act of violence by an unruly mob
  • Similar words include: howler, rioting, bacchanal
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIOT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28D: "45. Juice box?"

7 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that formerly a strong swift horse ridden into battle
  • Similar words include: battery charger, courser
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CHARGER

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29D: "47. I.T. pro's offering"

6 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PCHELP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30D: "48. Imposes, as a tax"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a charge imposed and collected
  • Similar words include: levy en masse, recruit, raise
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEVIES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31D: "49. Jennifer who wrote "A Visit From the Goon Squad""

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EGAN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32D: "51. Pretty large jazz combo"

5 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NONET

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33D: "52. Whom a diary is often shown to"

5 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NOONE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34D: "53. Search for groundwater, in a way"

5 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that searching for underground water or minerals by using a dowsing rod
  • Similar words include: rhabdomancy, souse, soak
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DOWSE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35D: "57. Jacket closer"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the act of catching an object with the hands
  • Similar words include: gingersnap, shot, pushover
  • Opposite of: inelasticity
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SNAP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36D: "58. Au ___ (how roast beef may be served)"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: JUS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37D: "60. Shape for flying geese"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: VEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

38D: "61. Apple taster in Eden"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

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!)
Answer: EVE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

39D: "62. Car brand with the Hummer E.V."

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GMC

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

37 Across Clues
39 Down Clues
76 Total Clues

More NYT Crossword Help

Looking for more puzzle solutions? Check out our comprehensive archive of NYT crossword hints and answers. We update daily with expert analysis and solving strategies.

Disclaimer: Crossword clues and grid © The New York Times. This site provides hints and educational content for puzzle enthusiasts. XWordHint is not affiliated with The New York Times.

Last updated: February 24, 2026 at 05:07 AM