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: Challenging
💡 Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!
🔍 Across Clues - Strategic Hints (33 clues)
🧩 1A: "1. Beauty lounge, of a sort"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2A: "11. Calm"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (poetic) tranquil silence
- Similar words include: silence, stillness, quiet down
- Opposite of: louden
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3A: "15. Mexico's Chamber of Deputies or France's National Assembly, for example"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4A: "16. Cash on hand?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (poker) the initial contribution that each player makes to the pot
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5A: "17. French kiss kissers"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6A: "18. Pull"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that controlling influence
- Similar words include: shake, carry, persuade
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7A: "19. Leading counsel?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8A: "20. Parting word"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9A: "21. One of the First Nations"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a member of an algonquian people living in central canada
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10A: "22. Tied up"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11A: "24. Évariste ___, 19th-century French math prodigy for whom a differential theory is named"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that french mathematician who described the conditions for solving polynomial equations; was killed in a duel at the age of 21 (1811-1832)
- Similar words include: Evariste Galois
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12A: "27. Melancholy 1964 #1 hit for Bobby Vinton"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13A: "28. Sponge brand originally spelled with two hyphens"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14A: "29. Spots"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the piece of land on which something is located (or is to be located)
- Similar words include: land site, locate, model
- Opposite of: arise, stand
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15A: "30. N.B.A. stat: Abbr."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that `johnny' was applied as a nickname for confederate soldiers by the federal soldiers in the american civil war; `greyback' derived from their grey confederate uniforms
- Similar words include: Johnny, Rebel, greyback
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16A: "31. Slightly"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17A: "32. Practitioner of black magic"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that of or pertaining to a number system having 16 as its base
- Similar words include: hexadecimal, hex
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18A: "33. Kind of box for media watchers"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19A: "34. "___ the Damn Season" (Taylor Swift holiday song)"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a light strong grey lustrous corrosion-resistant metallic element used in strong lightweight alloys (as for airplane parts); the main sources are rutile and ilmenite
- Similar words include: te, si, ti
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20A: "35. Machine for a highway crew"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21A: "36. Like bismuth and bitcoin"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that get from the earth by excavation
- Similar words include: mine
- Opposite of: unmined
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22A: "37. Swimwear that can be worn as shorts"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23A: "39. Full of snickers"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24A: "40. Try to break, as a bad habit"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that try to forget; put out of one's memory or knowledge
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25A: "41. Curve that's high and outside?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a curved shape in the vertical plane that spans an opening
- Similar words include: implike, patronising, wicked
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26A: "42. Abbreviated first name found three times on the signed Declaration of Independence"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a branch of the tai languages
- Similar words include: Tho
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27A: "43. 1990 novelty dance inspired by a comics superhero"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28A: "48. Staple of an outdoor reception"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a portable shelter (usually of canvas stretched over supporting poles and fastened to the ground with ropes and pegs)
- Similar words include: collapsible shelter, camp out, camp
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29A: "49. Became a marquee name, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30A: "50. Logical connective"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (used as a sentence connector) therefore or consequently
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31A: "51. Lovers of "Emma" and "Persuasion""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a solid solution of ferric carbide or carbon in iron; cools to form pearlite or martensite
- Similar words include: austenite
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32A: "52. Equine color"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a soft sheepskin leather that is colored and finished to resemble morocco; used in bookbinding
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33A: "53. Way to begin gaming, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🔍 Down Clues - Strategic Hints (31 clues)
🧩 1D: "1. Appearance of the marine creature called "by-the-wind sailor""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an indistinct shapeless form
- Similar words include: fleck, spot, blot
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2D: "2. Run easily"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a slow pace of running
- Similar words include: trot, canter, jog
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3D: "3. Hasn't settled up"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be obliged to pay or repay
- Similar words include: owe
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4D: "4. Foundered, as an investigation"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5D: "5. Nintendo title character with a head mirror"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6D: "6. Largest of the Dodecanese Islands"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that british colonial financier and statesman in south africa; made a fortune in gold and diamond mining; helped colonize the territory now known as zimbabwe; he endowed annual fellowships for british commonwealth and united states students to study at oxford university (1853-1902)
- Similar words include: Rodhos, Cecil J. Rhodes, Cecil John Rhodes
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7D: "7. "___ changed""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8D: "8. "___ disagree""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9D: "9. Barack Obama's final secretary of defense (2015-17)"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10D: "10. One who profits from eBay, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11D: "11. Expedite"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that act or move at high speed
- Similar words include: belt along, rush, race
- Opposite of: linger
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12D: "12. Rock solid"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable
- Similar words include: unshakable, steadfast, firm
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13D: "13. Where the 10th Amendment leaves many issues"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14D: "14. Call to whomever"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15D: "23. ___ Alamitos, Calif."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16D: "24. Dairy spread in a health food store"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17D: "25. Bond classification"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18D: "26. Tony-winning actress who provided the singing voice for the Disney princesses Jasmine and Mulan"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19D: "27. Is a social butterfly"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a commercially prepared mixture of dry ingredients
- Similar words include: coalesce, amalgamate, integrate
- Opposite of: segregate
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20D: "29. Like a typical flight from New York to London"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21D: "32. Shower drain protector"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22D: "33. Property of a wet suit or shapewear"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23D: "35. Smack in the middle of a crowd, in brief?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a lightweight consumer electronic device that looks like a hand-held computer but instead performs specific tasks; can serve as a diary or a personal database or a telephone or an alarm clock etc.
- Similar words include: personal organizer, personal organiser, personal digital assistant
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24D: "36. Units for measuring bacteria and dust"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a metric unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter
- Similar words include: micrometer, micron
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25D: "38. Surmount"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26D: "39. Hazards for high heels"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a frame of iron bars to hold a fire
- Similar words include: grating, grate, rankle
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27D: "41. Provides job assistance?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing
- Similar words include: abet
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28D: "44. To be, to Brutus"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29D: "45. ___ Hari"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30D: "46. Part of A.S.L.: Abbr."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31D: "47. Group of spies, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young
- Similar words include: snuggle, nestle, cuddle
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 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
🗂️ 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.