Today’s Mini Crossword is a quick, friendly warm-up—nothing too tricky, but a few clues are the kind that reward knowing common wordplay. If you want to glide straight through the grid, the hints below will get you moving fast. If you’d rather see everything laid out, jump to the full answers after.
Hints
Across gives you a nice mix of everyday vocabulary and chess terminology. Look for sea life that “sidle,” a classic phone greeting associated with Edison, and a common room pairing that mirrors basement. For the last across, think of a tactical move in chess that hits two targets at once.
Down leans a little more literary and thematic. One answer is the outer covering from grain, another is a fashion word meaning “old-school.” A wedding-ceremony location is also in play, followed by a verb meaning to fail at maintaining a long, steady stare. The final down clue points to clothing items tied to two MLB teams’ names.
If you’re also tackling Today’s NYT puzzle solving help alongside your crossword streak, these Mini clue types are great practice—short definitions, common pairings, and a little lateral thinking.
Answers
Mini Across
1A: CRABS — Sea creatures that sidle
6A: HELLO — Thomas Edison is credited with popularizing this phone greeting (Alexander Graham Bell preferred “Ahoy!”)
7A: ATTIC — Basement’s counterpart
8A: FRANK — Hot dog, informally
9A: FORKS — Chess tactics that attack two pieces at once
Mini Down
1D: CHAFF — Husk of wheat
2D: RETRO — Like throwback fashion
3D: ALTAR — Wedding ceremony site
4D: BLINK — Lose a staring contest
5D: SOCKS — Pieces of clothing for which two M.L.B. teams are named
Even when a Mini is “easy,” it’s worth noticing how often the clues lean on quick category instincts: mirrored rooms (basement/attic), familiar slang (hot dog/frank), and immediately recognizable word families (chaff vs. wheat, retro vs. throwback). That habit translates nicely into larger NYT puzzles and especially into multi-step games like Connections.
