Master the NYT crossword from January 20, 1990 with our expert hint system. We provide synonyms, antonyms, and strategic clues to help you solve without spoiling the fun.
Puzzle Difficulty: Medium
Pro Tip: Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues - they're usually the easiest entry points!
Across Clues - Strategic Hints (35 clues)
1A: "1. Baby's early word"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that informal terms for a mother
- Similar words include: mommy, mum, mom
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MAMA
2A: "5. Footwear"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that footwear shaped to fit the foot (below the ankle) with a flexible upper of leather or plastic and a sole and heel of heavier material
- Similar words include: skid, horseshoe, brake shoe
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SHOE
3A: "9. Yawn"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an expression of openmouthed astonishment
- Similar words include: gawp, yaw, yawn
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GAPE
4A: "13. Sacred image"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (computer science) a graphic symbol (usually a simple picture) that denotes a program or a command or a data file or a concept in a graphical user interface
- Similar words include: ikon, picture, image
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ICON
5A: "14. Exudes"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that expel or eject (saliva or phlegm or sputum) from the mouth
- Similar words include: chuck, honk, vomit up
- Opposite of: keep down
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPEWS
6A: "15. Competent"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (usually followed by `to') having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something
- Similar words include: able-bodied, capable
- Opposite of: unable
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABLE
7A: "16. Section of this"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CHRISTIANSYMBOL
8A: "19. Yes vote"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: AYE
9A: "20. Part of a deck"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that one of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes
- Similar words include: wit, carte du jour, circuit card
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CARD
10A: "21. Minds"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be obedient to
- Similar words include: obey
- Opposite of: disobey
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OBEYS
11A: "22. Abundant"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that most frequent or common
- Similar words include: plethoric, dominant, prevalent
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RIFE
12A: "23. Word with food or brother"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life
- Similar words include: mortal, individual, somebody
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SOUL
13A: "25. Section of this"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PARTOFASENTENCE
14A: "32. Alf, for one"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a person who comes from a foreign country; someone who does not owe allegiance to your country
- Similar words include: unknown, disaffect, extraterrestrial
- Opposite of: citizen, acquaintance
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALIEN
15A: "33. ___ number (speed measure)"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that austrian physicist and philosopher who introduced the mach number and who founded logical positivism (1838-1916)
- Similar words include: Ernst Mach
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MACH
16A: "34. Start of the Lord's Prayer"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OUR
17A: "35. Eye-shadow recipients"
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: eyelid, lid, chapeau
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LIDS
18A: "36. Blackboard"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (formerly) a writing tablet made of slate
- Similar words include: slating, ticket
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SLATE
19A: "38. Hodgepodge"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OLIO
20A: "39. Uncle, in Ayr"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EME
21A: "40. Charges"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a fixed charge for a privilege or for professional services
- Similar words include: fee, tip, bung
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: FEES
22A: "41. Large African antelope"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that either of two large african antelopes of the genus taurotragus having short spirally twisted horns in both sexes
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELAND
23A: "42. Section of this"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABRAINCHALLENGE
24A: "46. English spa"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a vessel containing liquid in which something is immersed (as to process it or to maintain it at a constant temperature or to lubricate it)
- Similar words include: bathroom, bathing tub, tub
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BATH
25A: "47. ___ d'arc (Osage orange)"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BOIS
26A: "48. Circa"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that on the move
- Similar words include: well-nigh, virtually, more or less
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABOUT
27A: "51. Milne's Winnie"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: POOH
28A: "52. Receptacle"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc.
- Similar words include: potty, privy, ass
- Opposite of: hire
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CAN
29A: "55. This"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CROSSWORDPUZZLE
30A: "59. Demolish"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that tear down so as to make flat with the ground
- Similar words include: take down, rase, pull down
- Opposite of: raise
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RAZE
31A: "60. Person born on April 1, e.g."
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in aries
- Similar words include: Ram, Aries the Ram
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ARIES
32A: "61. Something to feel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that annual grass of europe and north africa; grains used as food and fodder (referred to primarily in the plural: `oats')
- Similar words include: oat
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OATS
33A: "62. Ogled"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that having an eye or eyes or eyelike feature especially as specified; often used in combination
- Similar words include: eyeball, eye
- Opposite of: eyeless
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EYED
34A: "63. Jewels"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that art highly prized for its beauty or perfection
- Similar words include: muffin, treasure, jewel
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GEMS
35A: "64. Cavern, to a poet"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a small cave (usually with attractive features)
- Similar words include: grotto
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GROT
Down Clues - Strategic Hints (43 clues)
1D: "1. Isinglass"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of various minerals consisting of hydrous silicates of aluminum or potassium etc. that crystallize in forms that allow perfect cleavage into very thin leaves; used as dielectrics because of their resistance to electricity
- Similar words include: isinglass
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MICA
2D: "2. Sore"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that causing a dull and steady pain
- Similar words include: aching
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACHY
3D: "3. What Oliver Twist wanted"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that english statesman who opposed henry viii's divorce from catherine of aragon and was imprisoned and beheaded; recalled for his concept of utopia, the ideal state
- Similar words include: Thomas More, more than, to a greater extent
- Opposite of: fewer, less
Click to reveal answer
Answer: MORE
4D: "4. Black bird"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that black tropical american cuckoo
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ANI
5D: "5. Showy garden shrub"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a japanese shrub that resembles members of the genus spiraea; widely cultivated in many varieties for its dense panicles of flowers in many colors; often forced by florists for easter blooming
- Similar words include: spiraea, Astilbe japonica
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SPIREA
6D: "6. Nautical john"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
- Similar words include: chief, channelise, manoeuvre
- Opposite of: tail, foot
Click to reveal answer
Answer: HEAD
7D: "7. Possess"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that have ownership or possession of
- Similar words include: ain, possess, have
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OWN
8D: "8. Double curve"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a radioactive transuranic element produced by bombarding plutonium with neutrons
- Similar words include: Es, atomic number 99, E
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ESS
9D: "9. Work the slots"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that money that is risked for possible monetary gain
- Similar words include: adventure, hazard, risk
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: GAMBLE
10D: "10. French cleric's title"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a french abbot
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABBE
11D: "11. Device"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an opening remark intended to secure an advantage for the speaker
- Similar words include: stratagem, gambit
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PLOY
12D: "12. Morays"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the fatty flesh of eel; an elongate fish found in fresh water in europe and america; large eels are usually smoked or pickled
- Similar words include: eel
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: EELS
13D: "14. Crosier"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that personnel who assist their superior in carrying out an assigned task
- Similar words include: faculty, stave
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: STAFF
14D: "17. Offspring"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a descendent or heir
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SCION
15D: "18. Lad"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a young person (especially a young man or boy)
- Similar words include: early days, spring chicken, juvenility
- Opposite of: aged
Click to reveal answer
Answer: YOUTH
16D: "22. Hwys."
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RTES
17D: "23. Install"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a space reserved for sitting (as in a theater or on a train or airplane)
- Similar words include: can, ass, buttocks
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SEAT
18D: "24. Fairy-tale starter"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that on one occasion
- Similar words include: erst, at one time, one time
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ONCE
19D: "25. Plant scale"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PALEA
20D: "26. Out on ___ (taking chances)"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALIMB
21D: "27. Codicil"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a traveler who actively rides an animal (as a horse or camel)
- Similar words include: passenger
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: RIDER
22D: "28. Kind of hit"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a vigorous blow
- Similar words include: bankrupt, knock, smash up
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SMASH
23D: "29. Pitcher Ryan"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NOLAN
24D: "30. Prompter's job"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that assist (somebody acting or reciting) by suggesting the next words of something forgotten or imperfectly learned
- Similar words include: remind, cue, prompt
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CUING
25D: "31. Wear away"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that become ground down or deteriorate
- Similar words include: eat away, gnaw at, gnaw
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ERODE
26D: "36. Dispatched"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that 100 senti equal 1 kroon in estonia
- Similar words include: beam, charge, post
- Opposite of: unsent
Click to reveal answer
Answer: SENT
27D: "37. Nobelist Walesa"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that man with strong sexual desires
- Similar words include: letch, satyr, lecher
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LECH
28D: "38. Cheers for a toreador"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OLES
29D: "40. Decrees"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)
- Similar words include: edict, rescript, order
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: FIATS
30D: "41. Statesman Root"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ELIHU
31D: "43. Mistreated"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that treat badly
- Similar words include: ill-treated, mistreat, clapperclaw
- Opposite of: unabused
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABUSED
32D: "44. Residences"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any address at which you dwell more than temporarily
- Similar words include: dwelling house, habitation, domicile
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ABODES
33D: "45. Closed circuits"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that fastener consisting of a metal ring for lining a small hole to permit the attachment of cords or lines
- Similar words include: grummet, grommet, loop
- Opposite of: uncoil, open circuit
Click to reveal answer
Answer: LOOPS
34D: "48. Land measure"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a unit of area (4840 square yards) used in english-speaking countries
- Similar words include: Akko, Akka, Accho
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ACRE
35D: "49. Heehaw"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the cry of an ass
- Similar words include: hee-haw, grind, comminute
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: BRAY
36D: "50. Seep"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any thick, viscous matter
- Similar words include: exude, seep, ooze out
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: OOZE
37D: "51. Prudish"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that assume a prim appearance
- Similar words include: straightlaced, straight-laced, puritanical
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: PRIM
38D: "52. Despot"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a male monarch or emperor (especially of russia prior to 1917)
- Similar words include: tzar, tsar
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: CZAR
39D: "53. Choir member"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a singer whose voice lies in the alto clef
- Similar words include: countertenor, contralto
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ALTO
40D: "54. Aerie"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a structure in which animals lay eggs or give birth to their young
- Similar words include: draw close, snuggle, cuddle
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer
Answer: NEST
41D: "56. Joker"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a witty amusing person who makes jokes
- Similar words include: wit, card, shake
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: WAG
42D: "57. Pyrite or mispickel"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mineral that contains metal that is valuable enough to be mined
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ORE
43D: "58. Albanian king"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer
Answer: ZOG
Puzzle Stats
35 Across
43 Down
78 Total
