Our Best NYT Mini Crossword Hints and Strategies to Solve the Puzzle Fast
Here are seven hints for improving your Mini Crossword skills. It's a fast blast of daily word-game fun.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
The Mini Crossword is much simpler and faster than the famed regular New York Times Crossword puzzle.
My late mother-in-law, Grace, loved crossword puzzles. I absolutely believe it helped keep her mind active well into her 80s. I don't have the patience to do her favorite, the full-on New York Times crossword puzzle, most days, but I always have time for the Mini Crossword. It's super satisfying to finish off a puzzle and hear the little triumphant music, and see how long it took you to complete it. (Top solvers do it in about 30 seconds -- I can't even type all the answers that quickly!)
If you're stumped, CNET always has answers to Wordle, Connections, Strands and the Mini Crossword on the CNET home page -- scroll down and look for the "Daily Puzzle Answers" header to see them.
Here are some tips and tricks for solving The New York Times Mini Crossword.
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Solve out of order
Glance at the clues and go straight for the ones you definitely know. As with any crossword puzzle, once you fill in a few answers, you'll have letters to help you solve the more difficult ones.
Look for repeated or related clues
The New York Times Mini Crossword loves related clues, just like the big crossword puzzle does. Example: a recent Mini Crossword had two clues that were both "Apple product." But one related to apples that you eat (CIDER) and the other to computer products (MAC). When you see a repeated clue, open up your mind to all the meanings.
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Desktop over mobile
I do most everything on my phone, but I'm just going to say it: It's much easier to do The New York Times Mini Crossword on a large laptop or desktop screen than on a small phone screen.
Read more: Learn From the 5 Toughest Connections Puzzles So Far
One-answer-only clues are your friend
Some crossword clues are real stumpers. They're vague enough that numerous words could fit the bill. ("Best of the best" turned out to be "elite" recently, but it could have been "champ" or something similar.) But others have only one possible answer -- look for clues like that. Example: "Author of The Shining" can only be STEPHEN or KING.
Read more: Hints to Win at Strands
Don't be afraid of wrong answers
Even though I recommend going for the easy clues first, if you aren't sure of an answer, fill in your guess. Just always be aware that it's a guess. Once the other answers around it start to fill in, it's easy enough to change it -- there's no eraser needed online.
Not all answers are one word
You'll soon pick up on some of the Mini Crossword's own little oddities. One example: Not all answers are a single word. In a recent puzzle, the clue was "am not!" and the answer, of course, was also two words. And don't get stuck on one answer. I assumed the response to "am not!" was "are too!" but instead, it was "are so!"
Google if you must
Yes, you can Google answers if you're stuck. Maybe you can't remember the title of the third Game of Thrones book, because honestly, most readers know the titles but not in the exact order. There's no honor code in puzzles, except whatever code you set up for yourself.