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
- Across Clues Table (34 clues)
- Across Clues - Detailed Hints
- Down Clues Table (36 clues)
- Down Clues - Detailed Hints
- Expert Solving Strategies
- Today's Puzzle Statistics
Today's Puzzle Difficulty: Challenging
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. Acronymic weapon | 5 |
| 2A | 6. Suffix with caffe- | 3 |
| 3A | 9. Intro course? | 5 |
| 4A | 14. Hot shot producer | 15 |
| 5A | 17. What late-night partying might lead to | 15 |
| 6A | 18. Source of the Coneheads, in brief | 3 |
| 7A | 19. Strove | 7 |
| 8A | 20. "Jeepers!" | 3 |
| 9A | 21. Main ingredients in unagi don | 4 |
| 10A | 23. Former fillies | 5 |
| 11A | 24. Camp neckwear | 4 |
| 12A | 25. One way to check your impulses, in brief? | 3 |
| 13A | 27. Lo-___ | 3 |
| 14A | 28. Nimble | 4 |
| 15A | 29. Wills | 7 |
| 16A | 32. Bad-mouthed | 7 |
| 17A | 35. Spot for a mini-fridge | 6 |
| 18A | 36. Creator of the Detroit Industry Murals | 6 |
| 19A | 37. Boost | 7 |
| 20A | 39. Smug know-it-all type | 7 |
| 21A | 40. Class act? | 4 |
| 22A | 41. High degree | 3 |
| 23A | 43. Virginia Woolf's "___ Dalloway" | 3 |
| 24A | 44. Semi segments | 4 |
| 25A | 45. Yuks | 5 |
| 26A | 47. Merely whispered | 4 |
| 27A | 50. Lego founder ___ Kirk Christiansen | 3 |
| 28A | 51. Relative of a bandeau | 7 |
| 29A | 53. Mint | 3 |
| 30A | 54. "It hasn't happened to me, but ... wow!" | 15 |
| 31A | 57. What a streaker running across a baseball field could be | 15 |
| 32A | 58. "No cap" | 5 |
| 33A | 59. Saint-Maur-___-Fossés (part of Paris) | 3 |
| 34A | 60. Just beat | 5 |
Across Clues - Strategic Hints
1A: "1. Acronymic weapon"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TASER
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2A: "6. Suffix with caffe-"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: INE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3A: "9. Intro course?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that food mixtures either arranged on a plate or tossed and served with a moist dressing; usually consisting of or including greens
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SALAD
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4A: "14. Hot shot producer"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ESPRESSOMACHINE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5A: "17. What late-night partying might lead to"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NOISECOMPLAINTS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6A: "18. Source of the Coneheads, in brief"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SNL
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7A: "19. Strove"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that strive and make an effort to reach a goal
- Similar words include: push, toil, moil
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LABORED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8A: "20. "Jeepers!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EEK
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9A: "21. Main ingredients in unagi don"
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 (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EELS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10A: "23. Former fillies"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that female equine animal
- Similar words include: female horse, mar, impair
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MARES
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11A: "24. Camp neckwear"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a long thin fluffy scarf of feathers or fur
- Similar words include: boa, feather boa
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BOAS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12A: "25. One way to check your impulses, in brief?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a graphical record of electrical activity of the brain; produced by an electroencephalograph
- Similar words include: encephalogram, electroencephalogram
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EEG
Remember this word for future puzzles!
13A: "27. Lo-___"
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: Ra, atomic number 75, Re
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RES
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14A: "28. Nimble"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that skillful in physical movements; especially of the hands
- Similar words include: dexterous, dextrous
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEFT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15A: "29. Wills"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that order by virtue of superior authority; decree
- Similar words include: ordinate, ordain, enact
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ORDAINS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16A: "32. Bad-mouthed"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that stain by smearing or daubing with a dirty substance
- Similar words include: blur, smirch, denigrate
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SMEARED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17A: "35. Spot for a mini-fridge"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WETBAR
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18A: "36. Creator of the Detroit Industry Murals"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that socialist mexican painter of murals (1886-1957)
- Similar words include: Diego Rivera
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RIVERA
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19A: "37. Boost"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that make better or more attractive
- Similar words include: heighten, raise
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENHANCE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20A: "39. Smug know-it-all type"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WISEASS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21A: "40. Class act?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that trying something to find out about it
- Similar words include: mental testing, mental test, try out
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TEST
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22A: "41. High degree"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that last or greatest in an indefinitely large series
- Similar words include: n-th
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NTH
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23A: "43. Virginia Woolf's "___ Dalloway""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a form of address for a married woman
- Similar words include: Mrs., Mr., Mister
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MRS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24A: "44. Semi segments"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a compartment at the front of a motor vehicle or locomotive where driver sits
- Similar words include: taxi, cabriolet, taxicab
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: CABS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25A: "45. Yuks"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HAHAS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26A: "47. Merely whispered"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that yielding readily to pressure or weight
- Similar words include: flaccid, indulgent, easy
- Opposite of: loud, hardened
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SOFT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27A: "50. Lego founder ___ Kirk Christiansen"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OLE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28A: "51. Relative of a bandeau"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TUBETOP
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29A: "53. Mint"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered
- Similar words include: unexampled, newfangled, newly
- Opposite of: old, worn
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NEW
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30A: "54. "It hasn't happened to me, but ... wow!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ICANONLYIMAGINE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31A: "57. What a streaker running across a baseball field could be"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FANINTERFERENCE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32A: "58. "No cap""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SRSLY
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33A: "59. Saint-Maur-___-Fossés (part of Paris)"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a potent estrogen used in medicine and in feed for livestock and poultry
- Similar words include: diethylstilboestrol, Diamond State, stilboestrol
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DES
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34A: "60. Just beat"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that advance slowly, as if by inches
- Similar words include: edge, stinging, march
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EDGED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
Down Clues - Complete List
| No. | Clue | Letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1D | 1. Past or present | 5 |
| 2D | 2. In tandem | 5 |
| 3D | 3. Blabbed | 15 |
| 4D | 4. Things that come with waffles? | 3 |
| 5D | 5. Short Instagram video | 4 |
| 6D | 6. Weather map features | 7 |
| 7D | 7. "Enough!" | 6 |
| 8D | 8. Wu Zetian of the Zhou dynasty, for one | 7 |
| 9D | 9. Ginormous quantity | 4 |
| 10D | 10. Pescatarian steak option | 3 |
| 11D | 11. Pathway to a conclusion | 15 |
| 12D | 12. Relatives of sloths | 9 |
| 13D | 13. Typewriter settings | 5 |
| 14D | 15. Catfishing, for one | 4 |
| 15D | 16. Subjects of certain reviews at Untappd.com | 4 |
| 16D | 22. Branzino, by another name | 7 |
| 17D | 24. Lodge builders | 7 |
| 18D | 26. Titanic | 5 |
| 19D | 28. Philosophy of many founding fathers | 5 |
| 20D | 29. Not be square with | 3 |
| 21D | 30. Dollar offering | 9 |
| 22D | 31. Org. concerned with reactor safety | 3 |
| 23D | 33. 3-D scan | 3 |
| 24D | 34. "___ Boot" | 3 |
| 25D | 38. On | 7 |
| 26D | 39. Speculative musings | 7 |
| 27D | 42. "___ Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" (viral video from 2005) | 6 |
| 28D | 44. Fancy dos | 5 |
| 29D | 45. Proceed with a game plan | 4 |
| 30D | 46. Quite the | 4 |
| 31D | 48. Yard sticks? | 5 |
| 32D | 49. Coat material | 5 |
| 33D | 51. Stylish, as at an awards show? | 4 |
| 34D | 52. Reduce | 4 |
| 35D | 55. Naught | 3 |
| 36D | 56. H.S.-level exam | 3 |
Down Clues - Strategic Hints
1D: "1. Past or present"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time
- Similar words include: strain, tense up
- Opposite of: relaxed, relax
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TENSE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
2D: "2. In tandem"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ASONE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
3D: "3. Blabbed"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SPILLEDTHEBEANS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
4D: "4. Things that come with waffles?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group; occurs with yttrium
- Similar words include: Er, emergency room, atomic number 68
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ERS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
5D: "5. Short Instagram video"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a roll of photographic film holding a series of frames to be projected by a movie projector
- Similar words include: stagger, whirl, careen
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: REEL
Remember this word for future puzzles!
6D: "6. Weather map features"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (meteorology)an isogram connecting points having equal barometric pressure at a given time
- Similar words include: isobar
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ISOBARS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
7D: "7. "Enough!""
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NOMORE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
8D: "8. Wu Zetian of the Zhou dynasty, for one"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a woman emperor or the wife of an emperor
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: EMPRESS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
9D: "9. Ginormous quantity"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of a number of fishes of the family carangidae
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SCAD
Remember this word for future puzzles!
10D: "10. Pescatarian steak option"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: AHI
Remember this word for future puzzles!
11D: "11. Pathway to a conclusion"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: LINEOFREASONING
Remember this word for future puzzles!
12D: "12. Relatives of sloths"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that toothless mammal of southern africa and asia having a body covered with horny scales and a long snout for feeding on ants and termites
- Similar words include: pangolin, Myrmecobius fasciatus, aardvark
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ANTEATERS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
13D: "13. Typewriter settings"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a piece of furniture with a writing surface and usually drawers or other compartments
- Similar words include: desk
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DESKS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
14D: "15. Catfishing, for one"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a fraudulent business scheme
- Similar words include: gyp, hornswoggle, con
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SCAM
Remember this word for future puzzles!
15D: "16. Subjects of certain reviews at Untappd.com"
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
- Similar words include: ale
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ALES
Remember this word for future puzzles!
16D: "22. Branzino, by another name"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SEABASS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
17D: "24. Lodge builders"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the soft brown fur of the beaver
- Similar words include: beaver, beaver away, high hat
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: BEAVERS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
18D: "26. Titanic"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any creature of exceptional size
- Similar words include: titan, monster, colossus
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GIANT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
19D: "28. Philosophy of many founding fathers"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the form of theological rationalism that believes in god on the basis of reason without reference to revelation
- Similar words include: free thought
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DEISM
Remember this word for future puzzles!
20D: "29. Not be square with"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that be obliged to pay or repay
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: OWE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
21D: "30. Dollar offering"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: RENTALCAR
Remember this word for future puzzles!
22D: "31. Org. concerned with reactor safety"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an independent federal agency created in 1974 to license and regulate nuclear power plants
- Similar words include: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NRC
Remember this word for future puzzles!
23D: "33. 3-D scan"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the use of nuclear magnetic resonance of protons to produce proton density images
- Similar words include: magnetic resonance imaging
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: MRI
Remember this word for future puzzles!
24D: "34. "___ Boot""
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of several small ungulate mammals of africa and asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes
- Similar words include: coney, hyrax, DA
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: DAS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
25D: "38. On"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that render capable or able for some task
- Similar words include: enable
- Opposite of: disable
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: ENABLED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
26D: "39. Speculative musings"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: WHATIFS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
27D: "42. "___ Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" (viral video from 2005)"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: THEYRE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
28D: "44. Fancy dos"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the arrangement of the hair (especially a woman's hair)
- Similar words include: do, coiffure, hairdo
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: COIFS
Remember this word for future puzzles!
29D: "45. Proceed with a game plan"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that englishman and pre-raphaelite painter (1827-1910)
- Similar words include: search, William Holman Hunt, run
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: HUNT
Remember this word for future puzzles!
30D: "46. Quite the"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that quantifier; used with either mass nouns or plural count nouns to indicate an unspecified number or quantity
- Similar words include: just about, about, approximately
- Opposite of: no
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: SOME
Remember this word for future puzzles!
31D: "48. Yard sticks?"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a barrier that serves to enclose an area
- Similar words include: wall, debate, fence in
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: FENCE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
32D: "49. Coat material"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that thick woolen fabric used for clothing; originated in scotland
- Similar words include: flannel, gabardine, white
- Pattern: _____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TWEED
Remember this word for future puzzles!
33D: "51. Stylish, as at an awards show?"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: TONY
Remember this word for future puzzles!
34D: "52. Reduce"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that decrease gradually or bit by bit
- Similar words include: peel, pare down, whittle
- Pattern: ____
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: PARE
Remember this word for future puzzles!
35D: "55. Naught"
Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a quantity of no importance
- Similar words include: aught, nada, cipher
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: NIL
Remember this word for future puzzles!
36D: "56. H.S.-level exam"
Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
Answer: GED
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
34 Across Clues
36 Down Clues
70 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.