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 (35 clues)
🧩 1A: "1. Stringy parts of oranges"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that soft spongelike central cylinder of the stems of most flowering plants
- Similar words include: meat, pith, sum
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2A: "6. Regarding"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3A: "10. Longtime airer of the docuseries "American Greed""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4A: "14. Offerings from a truck or cart"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5A: "16. Carrier lead-in to méxico"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6A: "17. Phish-monger?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7A: "18. [Love ya!]"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8A: "19. "The devil take ___ soul!": Laertes"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9A: "20. Possible response to "Who's ready?""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10A: "21. Start of a rally"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play
- Similar words include: function, suffice, do
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11A: "22. Direction in a grilling recipe"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that make very hot and dry
- Similar words include: parch, sere, char
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12A: "23. Substack alternative"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13A: "25. Was out for a bit"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that take a siesta
- Similar words include: catnap, nap, catch a wink
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14A: "28. "Come on, stop dreaming""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15A: "29. Insect that can reproduce with or without mating"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any of various small plant-sucking insects
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16A: "30. Oatmeal, e.g."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17A: "33. Nano devices"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (trademark) a pocket-sized device used to play music files
- Similar words include: iPod
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18A: "34. Hour, in Italy"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mouth or mouthlike opening
- Similar words include: OS, atomic number 76, os
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19A: "35. "See ya later!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the state prevailing during the absence of war
- Similar words include: heartsease, peacefulness, repose
- Opposite of: war
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20A: "36. Beginning of Taurus season"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21A: "38. Zapped, in a way"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22A: "39. Sale sign words"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23A: "40. Meals at which Elijah's cup is poured"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (judaism) the ceremonial dinner on the first night (or both nights) of passover
- Similar words include: Seder, Passover supper
- Pattern: ______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24A: "41. Ay, there's the rub!"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that kneading and rubbing parts of the body to increase circulation and promote relaxation
- Similar words include: knead, rub down
- Pattern: _______
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25A: "43. Bordering on inappropriate, in a way"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that full of zest or vigor
- Similar words include: robust, rich, naughty
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26A: "44. Needed a 41-Across"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that feel physical pain
- Similar words include: ache, yearn, smart
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27A: "45. Golf course part"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the part of a golf course bordering the fairway where the grass is not cut short
- Similar words include: boisterous, pugnacious, bumpy
- Opposite of: smooth, cut
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28A: "47. Nephew of Abraham"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
- Similar words include: deal, set, luck
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29A: "50. Locale of the Sea of Serenity"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the natural satellite of the earth
- Similar words include: lunar month, daydream, moon around
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30A: "51. Literally, "grilled meat""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31A: "53. Homeboys"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32A: "54. One way to the highway"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33A: "55. Opposite of post-"
🎯 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!
🧩 34A: "56. Complimentary assortment in a hotel room's kitchenette, maybe"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a beverage made by steeping tea leaves in water
- Similar words include: tea leaf, afternoon tea, teatime
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 35A: "57. Padding for a grade point average"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🔍 Down Clues - Strategic Hints (35 clues)
🧩 1D: "1. Alternative to "Hey!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 2D: "2. Nagging desire"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a contagious skin infection caused by the itch mite; characterized by persistent itching and skin irritation
- Similar words include: scabies, itchiness, itching
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 3D: "3. It may come with breakfast in bed"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that an open receptacle for holding or displaying or serving articles or food
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 4D: "4. Sew what?"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that the edge of a piece of cloth; especially the finished edge that has been doubled under and stitched down
- Similar words include: ahem
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 5D: "5. Green poke bowl topping"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 6D: "6. Evening meal during Ramadan"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 7D: "7. Genre of "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 8D: "8. Bit of scattered Valentine's Day décor"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 9D: "9. D.C. summer hrs."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 10D: "10. Finished with hair and makeup, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 11D: "11. Exciting announcement from a musician"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 12D: "12. "Well done!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
- Similar words include: assassin, assassinator
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 13D: "13. Clinton's last defense secretary"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 14D: "15. Riser's partner"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a step in walking or running
- Similar words include: trample, pace, stride
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 15D: "21. Olympic track event in which Kenya dominates"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a footrace of usually 3000 meters over a closed track with hurdles and a water jump
- Pattern: ____________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 16D: "22. Intuitive ability in the Marvel Universe"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ___________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 17D: "24. Hero's journey, say"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that electrical conduction through a gas in an applied electric field
- Similar words include: spark, electric arc, arch
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 18D: "25. Hit hard"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits
- Similar words include: cop, pick up, nab
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 19D: "26. Dad, in Korean"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 20D: "27. Job for a model"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: __________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 21D: "28. Chess great Spassky"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 22D: "30. Who's ahead and who's not in campaign coverage, so to speak"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: _________
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 23D: "31. Early Chromebook manufacturer"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that type genus of the aceraceae; trees or shrubs having winged fruit
- Similar words include: genus Acer
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 24D: "32. Energy-efficient bulbs, for short"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that diode such that light emitted at a p-n junction is proportional to the bias current; color depends on the material used
- Similar words include: LED, light-emitting diode
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 25D: "37. Identify (as)"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a wooden pin pushed or driven into a surface
- Similar words include: thole, nog, peg down
- Pattern: ___
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 26D: "40. Wise ones"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mentor in spiritual and philosophical topics who is renowned for profound wisdom
- Similar words include: sage, sag down, droop
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 27D: "41. Black ___, nickname for Kobe Bryant"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that arboreal snake of central and southern africa whose bite is often fatal
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 28D: "42. What fell on Chicken Little's head"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that fruit of the oak tree: a smooth thin-walled nut in a woody cup-shaped base
- Pattern: _____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 29D: "43. Medieval characters"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that any character from an ancient germanic alphabet used in scandinavia from the 3rd century to the middle ages
- Similar words include: feed, fly the coop, hightail it
- Opposite of: malfunction, idle
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 30D: "46. Pod member"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that predatory black-and-white toothed whale with large dorsal fin; common in cold seas
- Similar words include: sea wolf, grampus, killer
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 31D: "47. One of the three landlocked countries with four-letter names, aside from Chad and Mali"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that a mountainous landlocked communist state in southeastern asia; achieved independence from france in 1949
- Similar words include: Lao, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Laotian
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 32D: "48. R&B/pop singer Aubrey"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 33D: "49. "Look what I did!""
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Pattern: ____
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 34D: "51. "You cannot look at a sleeping ___ and feel tense": Jane Pauley"
🎯 Solving Hints:
- Think of something that feline mammal usually having thick soft fur and no ability to roar: domestic cats; wildcats
- Similar words include: guy, spue, qat
- Opposite of: keep down
🔓 Click to reveal answer (spoiler alert!)
💡 Remember this word for future puzzles!
🧩 35D: "52. Montevideo Mrs."
🎯 Solving Hints:
- 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.
