In case you missed Thursday’s Mini, you can find the answers here:
How to Play the NYT Mini
The NYT Mini is a quick and dirty version of the newspaper’s larger and long-running crossword. Most days, there are between three and five clues in each direction on a five by five grid, but the puzzles are sometimes larger, especially on Saturdays.
Unlike its larger sibling, the NYT Mini crossword is free to play on the New York Times website or NYT Games app. However, you’ll need an NYT Games subscription to access previous puzzles in the archives.
The NYT Mini is a fun daily distraction that usually takes no time at all. I try to beat the standard weekday grid in less than a minute. But sometimes I can’t quite figure out one or two clues and need to reveal the answer.
To help you avoid doing that, here are the NYT Mini Crossword answers (spoilers lie ahead, of course):
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers
ACROSS
1) Fruity dessert named for its crunch – CRISP
6) Beehive product – HONEY
7) Tree whose wood is used to make Fender guitars – ALDER
8) Log ___ (water park ride) – FLUME
9) English county whose name sounds like the 19th and 24th letters of the alphabet – ESSEX
DOWN
1) Rub the wrong way, perhaps – CHAFE
2) Starts a turn in Monopoly – ROLLS
3) Longest river in South Asia (~2,000 miles) – INDUS
4) Ominous note on a failed exam – SEEME
5) Oven-safe glassware material – PYREX
This puzzle got me curious about “log flume” as surely that could not have originated purely as a theme park word, right? Nope, it does in fact have to do with real lumber, where flumes were created to transport lumber long distances down waterway slides rather than having them hauled by more traditional methods. Hence, you’re riding a log flume.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

