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Thursday, April 16, 2026

XWordHint Crossword Answers April 16, 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. Ventricle suppliers 5
2A 6. Accepted unquestioningly 5
3A 11. Rx for a root canal 7
4A 14. ___ Moshfegh, "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" novelist 7
5A 16. Performer known for her runs 7
6A 17. Sommeliers' assets 7
7A 18. Like some gins and cleaning products 5
8A 19. Wipe clean 5
9A 20. Fast fliers 7
10A 22. Insect nicknamed for its small size 7
11A 25. "Midsommar" director Aster 3
12A 26. "Nova" network 3
13A 28. Sport that takes place in an octagon, in brief 3
14A 29. Ilk 4
15A 31. Risks it 5
16A 33. Leaning 4
17A 34. Upper hand 4
18A 35. "I, Robot" author Asimov 5
19A 36. Big deals 4
20A 37. Facilities, informally 3
21A 39. Booking, for short 3
22A 41. Torah writers 7
23A 45. Unit for ultra-high-speed internet 7
24A 49. This isn't working! 7
25A 50. Fault line? 7
26A 51. Home security co. 3
27A 52. Wail 3
28A 54. Word seen between here and there 3
29A 55. Joel's smuggling partner on "The Last of Us" 4
30A 57. Bouquet 5
31A 59. Tzatziki scooper 4
32A 60. Big payroll service co. 4
33A 61. Number of Super Bowl rings for Tom Brady 5
34A 62. Abbr. seen before a person's name 4
35A 63. With 65-Across, with extreme precision ... or a hint to reading 15 of this puzzle's answers 4
36A 64. Serious 5
37A 65. See 63-Across 4

Across Clues - Strategic Hints

1A: "1. Ventricle suppliers"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any chamber that is connected to other chambers or passageways (especially one of the two upper chambers of the heart)
  • Similar words include: atrium
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ATRIA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2A: "6. Accepted unquestioningly"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3A: "11. Rx for a root canal"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4A: "14. ___ Moshfegh, "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" novelist"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5A: "16. Performer known for her runs"

7 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6A: "17. Sommeliers' assets"

7 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the upper surface of the mouth that separates the oral and nasal cavities
  • Similar words include: palate, roof of the mouth
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PALATES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7A: "18. Like some gins and cleaning products"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8A: "19. Wipe clean"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that remove from memory or existence
  • Similar words include: score out, wipe off, efface
  • Opposite of: record
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERASE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9A: "20. Fast fliers"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that diurnal birds of prey having long pointed powerful wings adapted for swift flight
  • Similar words include: falcon
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FALCONS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10A: "22. Insect nicknamed for its small size"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11A: "25. "Midsommar" director Aster"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12A: "26. "Nova" network"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a solution containing a phosphate buffer
  • Similar words include: Pbit, Pb, PiB
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PBS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13A: "28. Sport that takes place in an octagon, in brief"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14A: "29. Ilk"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
  • Similar words include: form, variety, tolerant
  • Opposite of: unkind
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KIND

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15A: "31. Risks it"

5 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a challenge to do something dangerous or foolhardy
  • Similar words include: daring, defy, presume
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DARES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16A: "33. Leaning"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way
  • Similar words include: crumpled, dead set, turn away
  • Opposite of: straighten, unbend
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BENT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17A: "34. Upper hand"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the boundary of a surface
  • Similar words include: butt on, sharpness, adjoin
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EDGE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18A: "35. "I, Robot" author Asimov"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (old testament) the second patriarch; son of abraham and sarah who was offered by abraham as a sacrifice to god; father of jacob and esau
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ISAAC

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19A: "36. Big deals"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a rapid active commotion
  • Similar words include: ado, bustle, fuss
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADOS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20A: "37. Facilities, informally"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
  • Similar words include: bathroom, toilet, lavatory
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAV

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21A: "39. Booking, for short"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a widely distributed system consisting of all the cells able to ingest bacteria or colloidal particles etc, except for certain white blood cells
  • Similar words include: re, Ra, reticuloendothelial system
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22A: "41. Torah writers"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that french playwright (1791-1861)
  • Similar words include: scrivener, copyist, scratch awl
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SCRIBES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23A: "45. Unit for ultra-high-speed internet"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a unit of information equal to 1000 megabits or 10^9 (1,000,000,000) bits
  • Similar words include: Gb, Gbit
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GIGABIT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24A: "49. This isn't working!"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that time available for ease and relaxation
  • Similar words include: leisure time
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEISURE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25A: "50. Fault line?"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an expression of regret at having caused trouble for someone
  • Similar words include: apologia, excuse
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: APOLOGY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26A: "51. Home security co."

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an ester of adenosine that is converted to atp for energy storage
  • Similar words include: automatic data processing, adenosine diphosphate
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADP

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27A: "52. Wail"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a loud utterance; often in protest or opposition
  • Similar words include: holler, cry out, outcry
  • Opposite of: laugh
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CRY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28A: "54. Word seen between here and there"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NOR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29A: "55. Joel's smuggling partner on "The Last of Us""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30A: "57. Bouquet"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any property detected by the olfactory system
  • Similar words include: scent, odour, olfactory property
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AROMA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31A: "59. Tzatziki scooper"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that usually small round bread that can open into a pocket for filling
  • Similar words include: pocket bread
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PITA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32A: "60. Big payroll service co."

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a terrorist organization organized in 1959 by student activists who were dissatisfied with the moderate nationalism of the traditional basque party; want to create an independent homeland in spain's western pyrenees
  • Similar words include: ETA, Basque Fatherland and Liberty, Euskadi ta Askatasuna
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETAS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33A: "61. Number of Super Bowl rings for Tom Brady"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of six and one
  • Similar words include: vii, septenary, VII
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SEVEN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34A: "62. Abbr. seen before a person's name"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35A: "63. With 65-Across, with extreme precision ... or a hint to reading 15 of this puzzle's answers"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that soft fine feathers
  • Similar words include: gloomy, refine, John L. H. Down
  • Opposite of: upwardly, upwards
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DOWN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36A: "64. Serious"

5 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the rear part of a ship
  • Similar words include: Isaac Stern, severe, hind end
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STERN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37A: "65. See 63-Across"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

Down Clues - Complete List

No. Clue Letters
1D 1. X, for one 3
2D 2. Fields medalist Terence 3
3D 3. Like a lake on a breezy day 8
4D 4. Charge 6
5D 5. Question from someone seeking reassurance 6
6D 6. "Finally!" 6
7D 7. Service with cups and saucers 6
8D 8. Dear 8
9D 9. Exercise 3
10D 10. Negation word in French 3
11D 12. Occasion 5
12D 13. Previous times 8
13D 14. Welcome sight in musical chairs 8
14D 15. Source of a deal with The Devil? 5
15D 20. Sham 4
16D 21. Like most of Nevada 4
17D 23. "Yeah, nice try" 4
18D 24. Gymnasts' rolls? 4
19D 27. Kid who might get grounded 4
20D 30. Take off the market 6
21D 31. Reroute 6
22D 32. Something a reality show lacks 6
23D 33. Igneous rock that composes most of Venus's surface 6
24D 38. Be against, in a way 4
25D 40. Achievement for Whoopi Goldberg and Rita Moreno, in brief 4
26D 41. Planned 6
27D 42. Officially give 6
28D 43. Tool with coarse teeth 6
29D 44. "It's a ___!" 6
30D 45. Portmanteau for a queer Fortnite player, say 6
31D 46. Fish whose name is Spanish for "pretty" 6
32D 47. "There's no stopping me!" 6
33D 48. Ruler with an iron fist 6
34D 53. Meander 4
35D 56. Fig. with two hyphens 3
36D 57. Modern intensifying suffix 3
37D 58. Journalist Curry 3
38D 59. Glib 3

Down Clues - Strategic Hints

1D: "1. X, for one"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2D: "2. Fields medalist Terence"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an adherent of any branch of taoism
  • Similar words include: Taoist
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3D: "3. Like a lake on a breezy day"

8 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small wave on the surface of a liquid
  • Similar words include: ripple, cockle, ruffle
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIPPLING

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4D: "4. Charge"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that accuse formally of a crime
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INDICT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

5D: "5. Question from someone seeking reassurance"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

6D: "6. "Finally!""

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7D: "7. Service with cups and saucers"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

8D: "8. Dear"

8 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that regard highly; think much of
  • Similar words include: esteem, respect, value
  • Opposite of: disesteem, disrespect
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ESTEEMED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9D: "9. Exercise"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the act of using
  • Similar words include: use of goods and services, employ, habituate
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: USE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

10D: "10. Negation word in French"

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (ballet) a step in dancing (especially in classical ballet)
  • Similar words include: dada, pappa, P.A.
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PAS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

11D: "12. Occasion"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something that happens at a given place and time
  • Similar words include: consequence, result, case
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EVENT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12D: "13. Previous times"

8 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DAYSPAST

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13D: "14. Welcome sight in musical chairs"

8 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OPENSEAT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14D: "15. Source of a deal with The Devil?"

5 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of a set of (usually 72) cards that include 22 cards representing virtues and vices and death and fortune etc.; used by fortunetellers
  • Similar words include: tarot card
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAROT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15D: "20. Sham"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be
  • Similar words include: impostor, imposter, manipulate
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FAKE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16D: "21. Like most of Nevada"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that lacking sufficient water or rainfall
  • Similar words include: desiccate, waterless, desiccated
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARID

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17D: "23. "Yeah, nice try""

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18D: "24. Gymnasts' rolls?"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a thick flat pad used as a floor covering
  • Similar words include: matting, matte, tangle
  • Opposite of: disentangle, unsnarl
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MATS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19D: "27. Kid who might get grounded"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a very troublesome child
  • Similar words include: holy terror, little terror, bratwurst
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BRAT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20D: "30. Take off the market"

6 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that remove (a security) from listing at a stock exchange
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DELIST

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21D: "31. Reroute"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that turn aside; turn away from
  • Similar words include: disport, hive off, deviate
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DIVERT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22D: "32. Something a reality show lacks"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a written version of a play or other dramatic composition; used in preparing for a performance
  • Similar words include: book, hand, playscript
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SCRIPT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23D: "33. Igneous rock that composes most of Venus's surface"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the commonest type of solidified lava; a dense dark grey fine-grained igneous rock that is composed chiefly of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BASALT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24D: "38. Be against, in a way"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
  • Similar words include: butt on, edge, adjoin
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ABUT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25D: "40. Achievement for Whoopi Goldberg and Rita Moreno, in brief"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26D: "41. Planned"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that designate or schedule
  • Similar words include: slate, slat
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SLATED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27D: "42. Officially give"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28D: "43. Tool with coarse teeth"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a handsaw for cutting with the grain of the wood
  • Similar words include: splitsaw
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIPSAW

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29D: "44. "It's a ___!""

6 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that something that should remain hidden from others (especially information that is not to be passed on)
  • Similar words include: private, surreptitious, hole-and-corner
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SECRET

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30D: "45. Portmanteau for a queer Fortnite player, say"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31D: "46. Fish whose name is Spanish for "pretty""

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that flesh of mostly pacific food fishes of the genus sarda of the family scombridae; related to but smaller than tuna
  • Similar words include: Katsuwonus pelamis, oceanic bonito
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BONITO

Remember this word for future puzzles!

32D: "47. "There's no stopping me!""

6 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33D: "48. Ruler with an iron fist"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a cruel and oppressive dictator
  • Similar words include: autocrat, despot
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TYRANT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34D: "53. Meander"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
  • Similar words include: roam, reeve, wander
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ROVE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35D: "56. Fig. with two hyphens"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36D: "57. Modern intensifying suffix"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
  • Similar words include: hind end, arse, nates
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37D: "58. Journalist Curry"

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

38D: "59. Glib"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the sound made by a gentle blow
  • Similar words include: rap, slick, dab
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PAT

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
38 Down Clues
75 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.

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Last updated: April 16, 2026 at 05:41 AM

Sunday, February 15, 2026

XWordHint Crossword Answers February 15, 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: 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. Do a little too well? 4
2A 5. Tops 4
3A 9. Resident of Ayrshire or Lanarkshire 4
4A 13. No time at all 6
5A 19. Discouraged action 4
6A 20. Mouthy? 4
7A 21. "What a relief!" 4
8A 22. Brought (out) 7
9A 24. Completely destroy with a blast 17
10A 27. Gaia, by another name 11
11A 28. Something typically taken every 10 years 6
12A 29. Doodled 4
13A 30. Certain bridge positions 5
14A 32. Segment of a timeline, perhaps 3
15A 33. The moon's "maria" 4
16A 36. Circa 6
17A 38. "Rhoda" actress Valerie 6
18A 40. Version of a textbook designed for instruction 14
19A 44. Salon substance 6
20A 45. Muppet who loves pigeons 4
21A 46. "My life is over" 8
22A 47. Sharpness 4
23A 48. Sarcastic response to a show-off 8
24A 52. Walked gingerly 6
25A 53. Product with Pro, Air and Mini varieties 4
26A 55. Conical shelter 6
27A 57. Use salt instead of sugar while baking, say 3
28A 58. Skewered Indonesian dish 5
29A 60. ___ Winter, basketball coach who famously innovated the "triangle offense" 3
30A 61. Had a brain fart 7
31A 66. Top-left PC key 3
32A 69. Like some simple repair jobs, in brief 3
33A 70. Grilled South American fare 5
34A 72. Smoothed (out) 6
35A 73. "Things are only going to get worse" ... or a hint to answering the seven italicized clues in this puzzle 22
36A 78. Science-and-nature magazine, familiarly 6
37A 79. Muckety-muck 5
38A 80. Frequently, poetically 3
39A 81. Fair-hiring inits. 3
40A 82. Chemical element whose use led to the first known law against poisoning 7
41A 84. Herman ___ (potato chip entrepreneur) 3
42A 85. More sardonic 5
43A 87. Rest area? 3
44A 90. Speeds of slow-moving traffic 6
45A 92. "It's ___ real" 4
46A 93. Delicate, as beauty 8
47A 96. Photo-editing technique used to create a smooth transition 11
48A 100. Wear (out) 4
49A 102. Middle-of-the-night woe 8
50A 104. Duchess of ___ (noted Spanish title) 4
51A 105. Made younger-looking in an editing studio, say 6
52A 107. Reality TV franchise created by Tyra Banks 8
53A 108. Philosophy symbolized by yin and yang 6
54A 111. Ruby lookalike 6
55A 112. Throw, in modern slang 4
56A 113. Fort Collins sch. 3
57A 114. Calls to task? 5
58A 116. Company behind the machine used to make Slurpees 4
59A 118. Kind of paper in a lab 6
60A 123. In back 9
61A 125. "Wait, are we done?" 16
62A 129. Queen of the fairies 7
63A 130. Dueling weapon 4
64A 131. Skin softener 4
65A 132. Fruit also known as a "uniq" 4
66A 133. Largest bird in North America 6
67A 134. X-ray units 4
68A 135. Immodest 4
69A 136. "You can't make me!," e.g. 4

Across Clues - Strategic Hints

1A: "1. Do a little too well?"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a charred substance
  • Similar words include: blacken, cleaning woman, coal
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CHAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2A: "5. Tops"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that either of two folds of skin that can be moved to cover or open the eye
  • Similar words include: chapeau, palpebra, hat
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LIDS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

3A: "9. Resident of Ayrshire or Lanarkshire"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a native or inhabitant of scotland
  • Similar words include: Scotchman, Scotsman
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SCOT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

4A: "13. No time at all"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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5A: "19. Discouraged action"

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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6A: "20. Mouthy?"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an examination conducted by spoken communication
  • Similar words include: oral exam, oral examination, viva voce
  • Opposite of: anal, aboral
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ORAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

7A: "21. "What a relief!""

4 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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8A: "22. Brought (out)"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that run at a moderately swift pace
  • Similar words include: clip, trot, jog
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TROTTED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

9A: "24. Completely destroy with a blast"

17 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: _________________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BLOWTOSMITHEREENS

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10A: "27. Gaia, by another name"

11 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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11A: "28. Something typically taken every 10 years"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a periodic count of the population
  • Similar words include: nosecount, nose count
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CENSUS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

12A: "29. Doodled"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that united states actor (born in ireland); father of georgiana emma barrymore (1827-1862)
  • Similar words include: draw in, draw off, describe
  • Opposite of: repel, deposit
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DREW

Remember this word for future puzzles!

13A: "30. Certain bridge positions"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the cardinal compass point that is at 90 degrees
  • Similar words include: due east, eastward, Orient
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EASTS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

14A: "32. Segment of a timeline, perhaps"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

15A: "33. The moon's "maria""

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land
  • Similar words include: sea, ocean
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SEAS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

16A: "36. Circa"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that in the area or vicinity
  • Similar words include: roughly, or so, close to
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AROUND

Remember this word for future puzzles!

17A: "38. "Rhoda" actress Valerie"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that someone who plays the harp
  • Similar words include: harpist
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HARPER

Remember this word for future puzzles!

18A: "40. Version of a textbook designed for instruction"

14 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

19A: "44. Salon substance"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a rich, frothy, creamy dessert made with whipped egg whites and heavy cream
  • Similar words include: gel, hair mousse, hair gel
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MOUSSE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

20A: "45. Muppet who loves pigeons"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

21A: "46. "My life is over""

8 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IMRUINED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

22A: "47. Sharpness"

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the basic human power of intelligent thought and perception
  • Similar words include: wag, wittiness, marbles
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WITS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

23A: "48. Sarcastic response to a show-off"

8 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAHDIDAH

Remember this word for future puzzles!

24A: "52. Walked gingerly"

6 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that walk impeded by some physical limitation or injury
  • Similar words include: hobble, limp, hitch
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LIMPED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

25A: "53. Product with Pro, Air and Mini varieties"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

26A: "55. Conical shelter"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a native american tent; usually of conical shape
  • Similar words include: tepee, tipi
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TEEPEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

27A: "57. Use salt instead of sugar while baking, say"

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that to make a mistake or be incorrect
  • Similar words include: drift, stray, mistake
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28A: "58. Skewered Indonesian dish"

5 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29A: "60. ___ Winter, basketball coach who famously innovated the "triangle offense""

3 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

30A: "61. Had a brain fart"

7 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that keep the opposing (baseball) team from winning
  • Similar words include: blank
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BLANKED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

31A: "66. Top-left PC key"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

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32A: "69. Like some simple repair jobs, in brief"

3 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

33A: "70. Grilled South American fare"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

34A: "72. Smoothed (out)"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that press and smooth with a heated iron
  • Similar words include: press, iron, iron out
  • Opposite of: unironed
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IRONED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

35A: "73. "Things are only going to get worse" ... or a hint to answering the seven italicized clues in this puzzle"

22 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ______________________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ITSALLDOWNHILLFROMHERE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

36A: "78. Science-and-nature magazine, familiarly"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

37A: "79. Muckety-muck"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a governor in india during the mogul empire
  • Similar words include: nawab
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NABOB

Remember this word for future puzzles!

38A: "80. Frequently, poetically"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that many times at short intervals
  • Similar words include: often, oftentimes, ofttimes
  • Opposite of: infrequently, rarely
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OFT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

39A: "81. Fair-hiring inits."

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

40A: "82. Chemical element whose use led to the first known law against poisoning"

7 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a white powdered poisonous trioxide of arsenic; used in manufacturing glass and as a pesticide (rat poison) and weed killer
  • Similar words include: As, ratsbane, arsenous anhydride
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARSENIC

Remember this word for future puzzles!

41A: "84. Herman ___ (potato chip entrepreneur)"

3 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
  • Similar words include: put down, place, position
  • Opposite of: stand, arise
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAY

Remember this word for future puzzles!

42A: "85. More sardonic"

5 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

43A: "87. Rest area?"

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
  • Similar words include: eff, bang, jazz
  • Opposite of: get up, turn out
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

44A: "90. Speeds of slow-moving traffic"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a very slow movement
  • Similar words include: creeping, Australian crawl, grovel
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CRAWLS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

45A: "92. "It's ___ real""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)
  • Similar words include: personify, cost, exist
  • Opposite of: differ
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BEEN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

46A: "93. Delicate, as beauty"

8 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air; - thomas carlyle
  • Similar words include: aeriform, celestial, aery
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ETHEREAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

47A: "96. Photo-editing technique used to create a smooth transition"

11 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a thin tapering edge
  • Pattern: ___________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FEATHEREDGE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

48A: "100. Wear (out)"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that hoop that covers a wheel
  • Similar words include: jade, tire out, outwear
  • Opposite of: refresh, interest
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TIRE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

49A: "102. Middle-of-the-night woe"

8 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an inability to sleep; chronic sleeplessness
  • Opposite of: hypersomnia
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INSOMNIA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

50A: "104. Duchess of ___ (noted Spanish title)"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

51A: "105. Made younger-looking in an editing studio, say"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

52A: "107. Reality TV franchise created by Tyra Banks"

8 letters Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TOPMODEL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

53A: "108. Philosophy symbolized by yin and yang"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a chinese sect claiming to follow the teaching of lao-tzu but incorporating pantheism and sorcery in addition to taoism
  • Similar words include: Daoism, Hsuan Chiao
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAOISM

Remember this word for future puzzles!

54A: "111. Ruby lookalike"

6 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of a group of hard glassy minerals (silicates of various metals) used as gemstones and as an abrasive
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GARNET

Remember this word for future puzzles!

55A: "112. Throw, in modern slang"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

56A: "113. Fort Collins sch."

3 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

57A: "114. Calls to task?"

5 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that one side of one leaf (of a book or magazine or newspaper or letter etc.) or the written or pictorial matter it contains
  • Similar words include: page, Sir Frederick Handley Page, pageboy
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PAGES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

58A: "116. Company behind the machine used to make Slurpees"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

59A: "118. Kind of paper in a lab"

6 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a coloring material (obtained from lichens) that turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions; used as a very rough acid-base indicator
  • Similar words include: litmus test
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LITMUS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

60A: "123. In back"

9 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

61A: "125. "Wait, are we done?""

16 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ISTHATALLTHEREIS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

62A: "129. Queen of the fairies"

7 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a white powder used as a pigment for its high covering power and durability
  • Similar words include: titanium dioxide, titanic oxide, titanium oxide
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TITANIA

Remember this word for future puzzles!

63A: "130. Dueling weapon"

4 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a fencing sword similar to a foil but with a heavier blade
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EPEE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

64A: "131. Skin softener"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that succulent plants having rosettes of leaves usually with fiber like hemp and spikes of showy flowers; found chiefly in africa
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALOE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

65A: "132. Fruit also known as a "uniq""

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin
  • Similar words include: ugli fruit, tangelo
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: UGLI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

66A: "133. Largest bird in North America"

6 letters Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the largest flying birds in the western hemisphere
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CONDOR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

67A: "134. X-ray units"

4 letters Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material
  • Similar words include: rad, radian
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RADS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

68A: "135. Immodest"

4 letters Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
  • Similar words include: libidinous, lustful, raunchy
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LEWD

Remember this word for future puzzles!

69A: "136. "You can't make me!," e.g."

4 letters Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an impudent or insolent rejoinder
  • Similar words include: lip, backtalk, back talk
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SASS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

Down Clues - Complete List

No. Clue Letters
1D 1. "The Exchange" airer 4
2D 2. Flaw in an argument 4
3D 3. Unknown author, for short 4
4D 4. Squabbles 4
5D 5. Unresolved parts of a plot 9
6D 6. Org. to which you might provide your bank account info 3
7D 7. Renewable energy structure 3
8D 8. Lost traction 4
9D 9. Globelike shape 8
10D 10. Dress down 7
11D 11. Poetic contraction 3
12D 12. Many middle schoolers 6
13D 13. Ones pressed for cash? 4
14D 14. Top of a latte 5
15D 15. Mucho 5
16D 16. M.L.B. team that once went by OAK on scoreboards 3
17D 17. In hot water? 7
18D 18. Fashion designer Carolina 7
19D 23. Shortage 6
20D 25. Behind 6
21D 26. Certain public transit network 7
22D 31. Singer whose "Hello" was the fastest video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube 5
23D 34. "People ___ Strange" (the Doors song) 3
24D 35. Conduct inciting an insurrection 8
25D 37. World's first billion-dollar corporation 7
26D 39. Sac fly result 3
27D 40. Game piece in Rummikub 4
28D 41. Royal title 4
29D 42. Where jet-setters may rub elbows 8
30D 43. Chalice 3
31D 49. P.D. alert 3
32D 50. Prefix meaning "sun" 5
33D 51. "Heavens to Betsy!" 6
34D 54. Subscription-only website feature 7
35D 56. Look into 7
36D 59. Contribute 3
37D 60. Chicago paper, informally 4
38D 62. N.Y.C. neighborhood that's home to the Grey Art Museum 4
39D 63. Lower-body exercise 8
40D 64. Occupational suffix 3
41D 65. J.F.K. predecessor 3
42D 67. Aromatic herb 4
43D 68. Hold tightly 6
44D 70. Mariner's greeting 4
45D 71. Natural attraction 8
46D 73. Two peas ___ pod 3
47D 74. Pitch 3
48D 75. French wine region 5
49D 76. LeBron James or Nikola Jokic 7
50D 77. Delivery person's assignment: Abbr. 3
51D 83. "Wheels" 3
52D 85. Beverage infused with THC 7
53D 86. Fixed, as a "m-i-t-s-a-k-e" 9
54D 88. County in western New York 4
55D 89. Deck out? 4
56D 91. Shoe with a thick sole 5
57D 92. Part of an equestrian's ensemble 8
58D 94. Small songbird 6
59D 95. Benefit plan option, in brief 3
60D 96. Wealthy sort 6
61D 97. Stretchy 7
62D 98. "Next on my list" 7
63D 99. ___ chi 3
64D 101. Lit up, in a way 7
65D 103. ___ Valley (San Francisco neighborhood) 3
66D 106. Less challenging 6
67D 109. Shell out 5
68D 110. Video game character aptly celebrated on Mar. 10 5
69D 115. Bicyclist's setting 4
70D 117. Latin list ender 4
71D 119. Lead-in to a conclusion 4
72D 120. ___ Millions (multistate lottery) 4
73D 121. Some addresses 4
74D 122. Dos + cuatro 4
75D 124. China's largest ethnic group 3
76D 126. Wellness resort offering 3
77D 127. Horn contents at a Viking feast 3
78D 128. Depressed 3

Down Clues - Strategic Hints

1D: "1. "The Exchange" airer"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

2D: "2. Flaw in an argument"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an opening into or through something
  • Similar words include: mess, kettle of fish, fix
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HOLE

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3D: "3. Unknown author, for short"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that at another time
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANON

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4D: "4. Squabbles"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an arrangement of objects or people side by side in a line
  • Similar words include: dustup, words, quarrel
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ROWS

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5D: "5. Unresolved parts of a plot"

9 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

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6D: "6. Org. to which you might provide your bank account info"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the bureau of the treasury department responsible for tax collections
  • Similar words include: Internal Revenue Service
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IRS

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7D: "7. Renewable energy structure"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water or to keep out the sea
  • Similar words include: dam up, dekametre, dike
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DAM

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8D: "8. Lost traction"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that move obliquely or sideways, usually in an uncontrolled manner
  • Similar words include: slew, skid, slue
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SLID

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9D: "9. Globelike shape"

8 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a shape that is generated by rotating an ellipse around one of its axes
  • Similar words include: ellipsoid of revolution
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPHEROID

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10D: "10. Dress down"

7 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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11D: "11. Poetic contraction"

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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12D: "12. Many middle schoolers"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

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13D: "13. Ones pressed for cash?"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a unit of pressure: the pressure that will support a column of mercury 760 mm high at sea level and 0 degrees centigrade
  • Similar words include: atmosphere, automated teller machine, cash dispenser
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ATMS

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14D: "14. Top of a latte"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a mass of small bubbles formed in or on a liquid
  • Similar words include: form bubbles, spume, sparkle
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FROTH

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15D: "15. Mucho"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

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16D: "16. M.L.B. team that once went by OAK on scoreboards"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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17D: "17. In hot water?"

7 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that devote (oneself) fully to
  • Similar words include: immerse, engross, infuse
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STEEPED

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18D: "18. Fashion designer Carolina"

7 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

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19D: "23. Shortage"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an acute insufficiency
  • Similar words include: shortage, famine, paucity
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEARTH

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20D: "25. Behind"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

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21D: "26. Certain public transit network"

7 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a conveyance that transports passengers or freight in carriers suspended from cables and supported by a series of towers
  • Similar words include: cable tramway, tramline, streetcar track
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TRAMWAY

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22D: "31. Singer whose "Hello" was the fastest video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

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23D: "34. "People ___ Strange" (the Doors song)"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters
  • Similar words include: personify, cost, exist
  • Opposite of: differ
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARE

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24D: "35. Conduct inciting an insurrection"

8 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the government
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SEDITION

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25D: "37. World's first billion-dollar corporation"

7 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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26D: "39. Sac fly result"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a run that is the result of the batter's performance
  • Similar words include: run batted in
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RBI

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27D: "40. Game piece in Rummikub"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a flat thin rectangular slab (as of fired clay or rubber or linoleum) used to cover surfaces
  • Similar words include: roofing tile
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TILE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

28D: "41. Royal title"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an independent ruler or chieftain (especially in africa or arabia)
  • Similar words include: amir, ameer, emeer
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EMIR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

29D: "42. Where jet-setters may rub elbows"

8 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a support for the arm
  • Similar words include: armrest
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARMRESTS

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30D: "43. Chalice"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small open container usually used for drinking; usually has a handle
  • Similar words include: cupful, transfuse, loving cup
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CUP

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31D: "49. P.D. alert"

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

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

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32D: "50. Prefix meaning "sun""

5 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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33D: "51. "Heavens to Betsy!""

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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34D: "54. Subscription-only website feature"

7 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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35D: "56. Look into"

7 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that inquire into
  • Similar words include: research, search
  • Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EXPLORE

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36D: "59. Contribute"

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: contribute, hyperkinetic syndrome, tot up
  • Opposite of: subtract, take away
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADD

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37D: "60. Chicago paper, informally"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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38D: "62. N.Y.C. neighborhood that's home to the Grey Art Museum"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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39D: "63. Lower-body exercise"

8 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KNEEBEND

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40D: "64. Occupational suffix"

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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41D: "65. J.F.K. predecessor"

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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42D: "67. Aromatic herb"

4 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics who is renowned for profound wisdom
  • Similar words include: salvia, sage-green
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SAGE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

43D: "68. Hold tightly"

6 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a small slip noose made with seizing
  • Similar words include: grasp, clutch, grip
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CLENCH

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44D: "70. Mariner's greeting"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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45D: "71. Natural attraction"

8 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that (immunology) the attraction between an antigen and an antibody
  • Similar words include: chemical attraction, kinship, phylogenetic relation
  • Opposite of: consanguinity
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AFFINITY

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46D: "73. Two peas ___ pod"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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47D: "74. Pitch"

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any of various dark heavy viscid substances obtained as a residue
  • Similar words include: seafarer, gob, sea dog
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

48D: "75. French wine region"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the longest french river; rises in the massif central and flows north and west to the atlantic ocean
  • Similar words include: Loire River
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LOIRE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

49D: "76. LeBron James or Nikola Jokic"

7 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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50D: "77. Delivery person's assignment: Abbr."

3 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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51D: "83. "Wheels""

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine
  • Similar words include: machine, automobile, railway car
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

52D: "85. Beverage infused with THC"

7 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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53D: "86. Fixed, as a "m-i-t-s-a-k-e""

9 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

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54D: "88. County in western New York"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

55D: "89. Deck out?"

4 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a particular instance of buying or selling
  • Similar words include: consider, care, quite a little
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEAL

Remember this word for future puzzles!

56D: "91. Shoe with a thick sole"

5 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that any shape that is triangular in cross section
  • Similar words include: Cuban sandwich, squeeze, Italian sandwich
  • Opposite of: dislodge
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WEDGE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

57D: "92. Part of an equestrian's ensemble"

8 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that trousers ending above the knee
  • Similar words include: knickerbockers, knickers, knee breeches
  • Pattern: ________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BREECHES

Remember this word for future puzzles!

58D: "94. Small songbird"

6 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that widely distributed european titmouse with bright cobalt blue wings and tail and crown of the head
  • Similar words include: Parus caeruleus, blue tit
  • Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TOMTIT

Remember this word for future puzzles!

59D: "95. Benefit plan option, in brief"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that group insurance that entitles members to services of participating hospitals and clinics and physicians
  • Similar words include: health maintenance organization
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HMO

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60D: "96. Wealthy sort"

6 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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61D: "97. Stretchy"

7 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a narrow band of elastic rubber used to hold things (such as papers) together
  • Similar words include: pliable, elastic band, rubber band
  • Opposite of: inelastic
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELASTIC

Remember this word for future puzzles!

62D: "98. "Next on my list""

7 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

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63D: "99. ___ chi"

3 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a native or inhabitant of thailand
  • Similar words include: Thai, Siamese
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAI

Remember this word for future puzzles!

64D: "101. Lit up, in a way"

7 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that cause to start burning; subject to fire or great heat
  • Similar words include: light, stir up, ignite
  • Opposite of: extinguish
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IGNITED

Remember this word for future puzzles!

65D: "103. ___ Valley (San Francisco neighborhood)"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

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66D: "106. Less challenging"

6 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that posing no difficulty; requiring little effort
  • Similar words include: light, easygoing, promiscuous
  • Opposite of: uneasy, difficult
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EASIER

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67D: "109. Shell out"

5 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that pass time in a specific way
  • Similar words include: pass, expend, drop
  • Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPEND

Remember this word for future puzzles!

68D: "110. Video game character aptly celebrated on Mar. 10"

5 letters 💭 Category: General Knowledge

Solving Hints:

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

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69D: "115. Bicyclist's setting"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a toothed wheel that engages another toothed mechanism in order to change the speed or direction of transmitted motion
  • Similar words include: paraphernalia, gear mechanism, appurtenance
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GEAR

Remember this word for future puzzles!

70D: "117. Latin list ender"

4 letters 💭 Category: Common Word

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

71D: "119. Lead-in to a conclusion"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an aromatic gum resin obtained from various arabian or east african trees; formerly valued for worship and for embalming and fumigation
  • Similar words include: therefore, frankincense, olibanum
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: THUS

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72D: "120. ___ Millions (multistate lottery)"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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73D: "121. Some addresses"

4 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that the address of a web page on the world wide web
  • Similar words include: universal resource locator, URL, uniform resource locator
  • Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: URLS

Remember this word for future puzzles!

74D: "122. Dos + cuatro"

4 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

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

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75D: "124. China's largest ethnic group"

3 letters 💭 Category: Proper Noun

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that imperial dynasty that ruled china (most of the time from 206 bc to ad 220) and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy; remembered as one of the great eras of chinese civilization
  • Similar words include: Han dynasty
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAN

Remember this word for future puzzles!

76D: "126. Wellness resort offering"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

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

Remember this word for future puzzles!

77D: "127. Horn contents at a Viking feast"

3 letters 💭 Category: Wordplay

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the united states an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
  • Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALE

Remember this word for future puzzles!

78D: "128. Depressed"

3 letters 💭 Category: Abbreviation

Solving Hints:

  • Think of something that an air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation
  • Similar words include: blue, low-pitched, dispirited
  • Opposite of: high
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LOW

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

69 Across Clues
78 Down Clues
147 Total Clues

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Last updated: February 15, 2026 at 05:07 AM