How to solve today’s Mini crossword.
Credit: NYT
We’ve come, at last, to Friday and typically that means the easiest Mini Crossword of the week on the NYT Games App. Saturday starts the cycle anew, but I’ll be cycling off the rotation for a couple weeks. You can find my daily Pips and Wordle guides, however, here on my blog. If you’re not playing Pips yet, you should be. It’s great! And it’s free—unlike the Mini Crossword which the New York Times has tucked away behind a nefarious paywall. In any case, let’s solve today’s Mini Crossword!
Looking for Thursday’s NYT Mini Crossword? Here are some hints and answers.
How To Play The NYT Mini Crossword
The NYT Mini is a smaller, quicker, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword. While it used to be free, in August the Mini was placed behind the NYT Games App paywall. This has led to a noticeable decline in people playing the game, unfortunately. You can check out all of the NYT Games, free and paid, right here.
A Mini Crossword is typically just 10 to 20 clues, with only Saturday’s puzzle on the upper end of that spread. Here’s what a basic NYT Mini looks like:
The NYT Mini Crossword
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Follow the clues and come up with as many words as possible, and then use the letters from those words to fill in the remaining words you were unsure about. A good rule of thumb is to skip ahead whenever you don’t know something and come back to the clue later. Of course, if you still need help at that point, read on below for hints and answers.
The best way to play the NYT Mini Crossword is to try to beat your previous speed or play competitively with a friend and see who can fill out their Mini the fastest. This is not a long, laborious task like the normal NYT Crossword. It’s a game of speed and agile thinking.
Spoilers ahead!
How To Solve Today’s NYT Mini Crossword
Before we get to the answers, here’s the first letter for each word in today’s Mini.
Across
1A. Dove’s soft call — C
4A. Write-up on a book jacket — B
6A. Two to one, for one — R
7A. Cupid’s weaponry, along with 5-Down — A
8A. Jennings of “Jeopardy!” — K
Down
1D. W.N.B.A. star Caitlin — C
2D. Beyond bizarre, from the French — O
3D. What has a “belt” seen only at night — O
4D. Supportive undergarment — B
5D. See 7-Across — B
Today’s Mini Crossword Answers
Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!
Across
1A. Dove’s soft call — COO
4A. Write-up on a book jacket — BLURB
6A. Two to one, for one — RATIO
7A. Cupid’s weaponry, along with 5-Down — ARROW
8A. Jennings of “Jeopardy!” — KEN
Down
1D. W.N.B.A. star Caitlin — CLARK
2D. Beyond bizarre, from the French — OUTRE
3D. What has a “belt” seen only at night — ORION
4D. Supportive undergarment — BRA
5D. See 7-Across — BOW
Here are the filled in answers:
Today’s Mini Crossword
Screenshot: Erik Kain
Not a bad one today. I had the sound a dove makes on the tip of my tongue but couldn’t quite recall it, so I moved on to others like RATIO and ARROW and KEN and BRA and basically didn’t hit any other snags other than 2-Down (OUTRE) finally working my back around to COO. This one took me 1 minute and 9 seconds.
How did you do? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
If you also play Wordle, I write guides about that as well. You can find those and all my TV guides, reviews and much more here on my blog. Thanks for reading!