The Mini Crossword

What is The Mini Crossword?

The Mini is the NYT's bite-size daily crossword — a 5×5 grid you can usually finish in under a minute, with clever clues that punch above their size.

How to play The Mini Crossword

Fill the white squares so every across and down answer matches its clue. Short answers mean crossings carry a lot of weight, so a single confident letter often unlocks two entries at once.

Tips & strategy

• Start with fill-in-the-blank and proper-noun clues — they're the most certain.
• Let crossings correct you: if a down looks wrong, recheck the across it shares.
• Watch for plural 'S' and tense endings to grab cheap final letters.

Where to play

Play The Mini Crosswordnytimes.com · free, new puzzle daily

Play here