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 (38 clues)
🧩 1A: "1. Molecule that stores energy in the body, in brief"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a nucleotide derived from adenosine that occurs in muscle tissue; the major source of energy for cellular reactions
- Similar words include: adenosine triphosphate
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ATP
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2A: "4. Word before rope or scare"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a sudden and decisive increase
- Similar words include: leap out, spring, pass over
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: JUMP
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3A: "8. Loose-limbed"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that moving and bending with ease
- Similar words include: slender, supple, lissome
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LITHE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4A: "13. Talk like a tippler"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (music) a curved line spanning notes that are to be played legato
- Similar words include: blot, aspersion, smudge
- Opposite of: focus
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SLUR
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5A: "14. Far from shore"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that in the direction of the sea
- Similar words include: seaward, seawards
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASEA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6A: "15. City on the Nile … or a punny end to the joke "When a tight-knit group of cygnets votes, they vote ___""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an ancient city on the nile in egypt; two dams across the nile have been built nearby
- Similar words include: Assouan, Assuan
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASWAN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7A: "16. Do a collie's work"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans
- Similar words include: ruck, crowd
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HERD
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8A: "17. ["I'll take 'Tennis' for $200, Ken"] It means nothing"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHATISLOVE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9A: "19. Pre-med track precursor, in brief"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: APBIO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10A: "21. Cookie holder"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a silvery malleable metallic element that resists corrosion; used in many alloys and to coat other metals to prevent corrosion; obtained chiefly from cassiterite where it occurs as tin oxide
- Similar words include: put up, can, canister
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TIN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11A: "22. Not many"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AFEW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12A: "23. ["Let's go with 'Nickname's the Same' for $400"] Bruce Springsteen, Lance Armstrong and Melissa McCarthy in a 2016 comedy"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHOSTHEBOSS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13A: "27. Transistor states"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ONS
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🧩 14A: "28. Honda luxury brand"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ACURA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15A: "29. Over yonder"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: THAR
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16A: "31. Bubbles, e.g."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the ball-shaped capsule containing the vertebrate eye
- Similar words include: globe, orbit, eyeball
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ORBS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17A: "34. Hauls"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that ancient celtic god
- Similar words include: Lugh, tug, block
- Opposite of: unstuff
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LUGS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18A: "36. Muscle-and-bone doc"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ORTHO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19A: "39. ["Give me 'The Academy' for $600"] This was only the second animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, after "Beauty and the Beast""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHATSUP
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20A: "41. ["How about 'Sports and Comedy' for $800"] He was on first base, per Abbott and Costello"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHOSWHO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21A: "43. The Supreme Court justices, collectively"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NONET
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22A: "44. Charlie's Angels, e.g."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the cardinal number that is the sum of one and one and one
- Similar words include: tercet, three, triple
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TRIO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23A: "46. Swanky"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that elegant and fashionable; ; ; ; - julia child
- Similar words include: swish, classy
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: POSH
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24A: "47. Doubled or tripled, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that pass into a condition gradually, take on a specific property or attribute; become
- Similar words include: arise, develop, originate
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GREW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25A: "49. Gas brand with a torch in its logo"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AMOCO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26A: "51. Savanna prey"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that large african antelope having a head with horns like an ox and a long tufted tail
- Similar words include: wildebeest
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GNU
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27A: "53. ["I'll try 'Painted Ladies" for $1,000"] This piece by Impressionist Mary Cassatt shows two women enjoying a drink"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHATSTHETEA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28A: "58. Kelly of morning TV"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIPA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29A: "60. Guile"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the products of human creativity; works of art collectively
- Similar words include: graphics, artistic creation, nontextual matter
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ART
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30A: "61. Key ring?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ATOLL
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31A: "62. At risk … or where one might hear the clue-and-answer pairs at 17-, 23-, 39-, 41- and 53-Across?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INJEOPARDY
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32A: "66. "Thus with a kiss ___" (Romeo's final words)"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: IDIE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33A: "67. Sea inlet surrounded by steep cliffs"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a long narrow inlet of the sea between steep cliffs; common in norway
- Similar words include: fiord
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FJORD
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 34A: "68. In one's birthday suit"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that make public
- Similar words include: unfinished, mere, naked
- Opposite of: sheathed, covered
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BARE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 35A: "69. Try to win over"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a transmission line for high-frequency signals
- Similar words include: inveigle, palaver, coaxial cable
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COAX
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 36A: "70. Hasbro word game that comes with a 60-second hourglass"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a prejudice (especially in polynesia and other south pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature
- Similar words include: proscribed, prohibited, forbidden
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TABOO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 37A: "71. Go like a geyser"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that expel or eject (saliva or phlegm or sputum) from the mouth
- Similar words include: ptyalize, retch, spue
- Opposite of: keep down
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPEW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 38A: "72. Word after kick or dumb"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on
- Similar words include: tail, keister, posterior
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🔍 Down Clues - Strategic Hints (40 clues)
🧩 1D: "1. Hebrew leader?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the 1st letter of the hebrew alphabet
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALEPH
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2D: "2. Booster for a dragster"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TURBO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3D: "3. Result of a scandal going viral, in brief"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PRDISASTER
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4D: "4. Prominent feature of a hippopotamus or crocodile"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the part of the skull of a vertebrate that frames the mouth and holds the teeth
- Similar words include: claver, have words, chew
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: JAW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5D: "5. Escort in the theater, informally"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: USH
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6D: "6. Human, to a robot"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MEATBAG
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7D: "7. Outdoor party area"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that usually paved outdoor area adjoining a residence
- Similar words include: terrace
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PATIO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8D: "8. ___ Palmas, capital of the Canaries"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily; occurs in rare earth minerals and is usually classified as a rare earth
- Similar words include: Pelican State, Louisiana, lah
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LAS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9D: "9. Cuba o Puerto Rico"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ISLA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10D: "10. A winning scenario in a best-of-three game"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TWOFORTWO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11D: "11. Sanctuary"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a shelter serving as a place of safety or sanctuary
- Similar words include: harbour, harbor, seaport
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAVEN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12D: "12. TV show that has existed since before online media, despite what its name suggests"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENEWS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13D: "13. "Man and Superman" playwright"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that united states clarinetist and leader of a swing band (1910-2004)
- Similar words include: Henry Wheeler Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, Anna Howard Shaw
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SHAW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14D: "18. Tech sch."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that in or of the present month
- Similar words include: instant
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INST
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15D: "20. Like easy-to-get meds, in brief"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (of securities) not traded on a stock exchange
- Similar words include: over-the-counter
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OTC
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16D: "24. Peacock competitor"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HULU
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17D: "25. Go off"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that start abruptly
- Similar words include: flare up, belch, conflagrate
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERUPT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18D: "26. Drive off"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that drive away by crying `shoo!'
- Similar words include: shoo away, shoo off
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SHOO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19D: "30. Horatian work of ca. 18 B.C."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARSPOETICA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20D: "31. Not rent, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that have ownership or possession of
- Similar words include: have, possess, ain
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OWN
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21D: "32. Greek letter that looks like "p""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the 17th letter of the greek alphabet
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RHO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22D: "33. Incredible work"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BANGUPJOB
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23D: "35. Does some strokes"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the act of swimming; :
- Similar words include: drown, swimming, swim
- Opposite of: sink
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SWIMS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24D: "37. Dept. that oversees the F.D.A."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the united states federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979
- Similar words include: Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HHS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25D: "38. "Look at that!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that express admiration and pleasure by uttering `ooh' or `aah'
- Similar words include: aah
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OOH
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26D: "40. Gumbo, for one"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that agitation resulting from active worry
- Similar words include: sweat, fret, lather
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: STEW
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27D: "42. Terrifying sound for a field mouse"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a loud raucous cry (as of an owl)
- Similar words include: snort, darn, red cent
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HOOT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28D: "45. Terrifying device for a field mouse"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a difficult entangling situation
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RATTRAP
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29D: "48. Larrup"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Similar words include: whop, bonk, bop
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHAP
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30D: "50. When repeated, a dance"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CHA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31D: "51. Dirty money"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GRIFT
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32D: "52. Symbol of stealth"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a member of the ninja who were trained in martial arts and hired for espionage or sabotage or assassinations; a person skilled in ninjutsu
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NINJA
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33D: "54. Emiratis, e.g."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a member of a semitic people originally from the arabian peninsula and surrounding territories who speaks arabic and who inhabits much of the middle east and northern africa
- Similar words include: Arab, Arabian
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ARABS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 34D: "55. Some list items"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TODOS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 35D: "56. Mount St. ___, second-highest mountain in Canada"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that english essayist (1775-1834)
- Similar words include: Lamb, Charles Lamb, Elia
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ELIAS
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 36D: "57. Trebek who once hosted this puzzle's theme"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALEX
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 37D: "59. Nestlé chocolate bar"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AERO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 38D: "63. Lead-in to meter"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that french pope from 1088 to 1099 whose sermons called for the first crusade (1042-1099)
- Similar words include: Otho of Lagery, Urban II, Odo of Lagery
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ODO
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 39D: "64. Grammy-winning Dr. ___"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DRE
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 40D: "65. Poison source in Agatha Christie's "A Pocket Full of Rye""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that wood of a yew; especially the durable fine-grained light brown or red wood of the english yew valued for cabinetwork and archery bows
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: YEW
💡 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
38 Across Clues
40 Down Clues
78 Total Clues
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