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 lover who want that satisfying "aha!" moment.
Today is Puzzle Difficulty: Tricky
💡 Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!
🔍 Across Clues - Strategic Hints (36 clues)
🧩 1A: "1. Like baseballs and some eyelashes"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that strike with, or as if with a baseball bat
- Similar words include: thrash, bat, cream
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BATTED
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2A: "7. Moored"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ATANCHOR
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3A: "15. Not come unglued"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be compatible or in accordance with
- Similar words include: cohere, stand by, cleave
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADHERE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4A: "16. Flugelhorn player on the 1978 instrumental hit "Feels So Good""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MANGIONE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5A: "17. Philadelphia university known for its professional co-op program"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DREXEL
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6A: "18. Statement of resignation"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IMDOOMED
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7A: "19. Brother Joe, Kevin or Nick of pop"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: JONAS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8A: "20. Genealogists' handiwork"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms
- Similar words include: shoetree, corner, Tree
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TREES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9A: "21. Alternative music genre since the mid-1980s"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EMO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10A: "22. Word before air or fire"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a clear or unobstructed space or expanse of land or water
- Similar words include: overt, spread out, opened
- Opposite of: fold, shut
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OPEN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11A: "23. Eyebrow makeup"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
- Similar words include: haircloth, fuzz, hairsbreadth
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAIRS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12A: "24. "___, man!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CMON
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13A: "25. Ball-shaped cereal"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KIX
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14A: "26. Garb for athletes in the Highland Games"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a knee-length pleated tartan skirt worn by men as part of the traditional dress in the highlands of northern scotland
- Similar words include: kilt
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KILTS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15A: "27. Fault"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an accusation that you are responsible for some lapse or misdeed
- Similar words include: goddamn, goddamned, infernal
- Opposite of: absolve
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BLAME
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16A: "28. Way in"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that something that provides access (to get in or get out)
- Similar words include: entering, entryway, trance
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENTRANCE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17A: "30. It's most beautiful when broken"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (mineralogy) a hollow rock or nodule with the cavity usually lined with crystals
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GEODE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18A: "31. Vacation isle for many a Francophile, familiarly"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STBARTS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19A: "32. Foil"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that keep from happening or arising; make impossible
- Similar words include: forbid, forestall, foreclose
- Opposite of: let
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PREVENT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20A: "34. Stashes"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the dressed skin of an animal (especially a large animal)
- Similar words include: enshroud, shroud, hide out
- Opposite of: show
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HIDES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21A: "35. 1, 2 and 3, in that order"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TRIFECTA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22A: "36. Get the ball rolling"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that israeli statesman (born in russia) who (as prime minister of israel) negotiated a peace treaty with anwar sadat (then the president of egypt) (1913-1992)
- Similar words include: Menachem Begin, start, lead off
- Opposite of: end
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BEGIN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23A: "37. Verb that appears the same when rotated 180º"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the act of swimming; :
- Similar words include: float, swim, swimming
- Opposite of: sink
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SWIMS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24A: "38. Choice word?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that select as an alternative over another
- Similar words include: choose, prefer
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OPT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25A: "39. Cousin of naan"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ROTI
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26A: "40. More of this?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: THESE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27A: "41. Founder of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a share of money or food or clothing that has been charitably given
- Similar words include: pogey, pogy
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DOLE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28A: "42. Saxon's "Aargh!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ACH
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29A: "43. Sacred space for female family members, in the Muslim tradition"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that living quarters reserved for wives and concubines and female relatives in a muslim household
- Similar words include: seraglio, hareem, serail
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAREM
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30A: "44. Roll producer"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that someone who bakes commercially
- Similar words include: bread maker
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BAKER
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31A: "45. European brewer with over 170 brands"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HEINEKEN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32A: "47. It can tie up your stock"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a long noosed rope used to catch animals
- Similar words include: riata, lasso, reata
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LARIAT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33A: "48. Common wedding day prep"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MANIPEDI
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 34A: "49. Demonstrative words"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LIKESO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 35A: "50. Crème ___ (custard sauce)"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANGLAISE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 36A: "51. What goes on goes here"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a small room (or recess) or cabinet used for storage space
- Similar words include: W.C., water closet, loo
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CLOSET
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🔍 Down Clues - Strategic Hints (32 clues)
🧩 1D: "1. Groaners"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BADJOKES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2D: "2. The most infinitesimal amount"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ADROPINTHEOCEAN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3D: "3. Silicon Valley's holy grail"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: THENEXTBIGTHING
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4D: "4. Beyoncé or Selena, e.g."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a native or resident of texas
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TEXAN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5D: "5. "You are," in Spain"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6D: "6. Key for getting rid of your work, in brief?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEL
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7D: "7. "Agreed?""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AMIRITE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8D: "8. Certain circus performers"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an animal trainer who tames wild animals
- Similar words include: tamer
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAMERS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9D: "9. Mountain range that spans 67º of latitude"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mountain range in south america running 5000 miles along the pacific coast
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANDES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10D: "10. Many foreign aid grps."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government
- Similar words include: nongovernmental organization, NGO
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NGOS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11D: "11. Corporate data manager, for short"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a federation of north american industrial unions that merged with the american federation of labor in 1955
- Similar words include: Congress of Industrial Organizations
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CIO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12D: "12. Bake sale offerings"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HOMEMADECOOKIES
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13D: "13. "Hold on, I'll be right with you""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ONEMOMENTPLEASE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14D: "14. Spiffed up, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that do over, as of (part of) a house
- Similar words include: remake, make over, redo
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: REDONE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15D: "20. Rash guards?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a fine grained mineral having a soft soapy feel and consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate; used in a variety of products including talcum powder
- Similar words include: talc, talcum
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TALCS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16D: "23. Whiffs"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an indirect suggestion
- Similar words include: tinge, hint, suggestion
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HINTS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17D: "24. It can spice up your holidays"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that aromatic flower bud of a clove tree; yields a spice
- Similar words include: adhere, rive, Eugenia aromaticum
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CLOVE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18D: "26. Mayor Bass of Los Angeles"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the tibeto-burman language spoken in the thailand and burmese borderlands
- Similar words include: Karenic
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: KAREN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19D: "27. Interpersonal "issues""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that cattle that are reared for their meat
- Similar words include: bitch, grouse, gripe
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BEEFS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20D: "29. They're all equal in a circle"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the length of a line segment between the center and circumference of a circle or sphere
- Similar words include: radius, spoke, wheel spoke
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RADII
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21D: "30. Dirty coat"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the state of being covered with unclean things
- Similar words include: grunge, soil, bemire
- Opposite of: clean
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GRIME
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22D: "32. Device featured in Newton's "Opticks""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a polyhedron with two congruent and parallel faces (the bases) and whose lateral faces are parallelograms
- Similar words include: optical prism
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PRISM
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23D: "33. Fry alternative"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TATERTOT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24D: "35. Preadolescent, informally"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TWEENIE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25D: "36. Destroyer : Shiva :: Creator : ___"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the creator; one of the three major deities in the later hindu pantheon
- Similar words include: Brahmin, Bos indicus, Brahman
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BRAHMA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26D: "37. Nails the halfpipe, in snowboarding jargon"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
- Similar words include: iota, smidgeon, smidgen
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SHREDS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27D: "40. George with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TAKEI
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28D: "41. Title character of a Jake Gyllenhaal cult classic"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DARKO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29D: "43. Big acronym in purifying filters"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HEPA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30D: "44. Call off plans abruptly"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (criminal law) money that must be forfeited by the bondsman if an accused person fails to appear in court for trial
- Similar words include: bond, bail bond
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BAIL
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31D: "46. Love, on the pitch"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a quantity of no importance
- Similar words include: zip, nix, naught
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NIL
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32D: "47. Closing for business?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LLC
💡 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
36 Across Clues
32 Down Clues
68 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.