How to solve today’s Mini crossword.

Credit: NYT

The weekend is racing past, but it’s not too late to commit to good old-fashioned laziness this fine November Sunday. Kick back with a good book or simply lounge around in your pajamas. Maybe solve a puzzle or two. For my part, it was a musical weekend and a bit of a quick family trip to the desert to listen to a festival. Of course, we have a Mini Crossword to solve, so let’s solve that before we get too comfortable.

Looking for Saturday’s Mini Crossword? Here’s our guide.

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:

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. Croat or Bulgarian — S
• 5A. No-___ Texas Hold’em (poker variety) — L
• 7A. Proof you weren’t part of the crime, say — A
• 8A. Roll around in the morning? — B
• 9A. Purchase price — C

Down

• 1D. Thick piece of concrete — S
• 2D. Light purple — L
• 3D. Ol’ buddy ol’ pal — A
• 4D. Has good chemistry (with) — V
• 6D. Lean to one side — T

Today’s Mini Crossword Answers

Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!

Across

• 1A. Croat or Bulgarian — SLAV
• 5A. No-___ Texas Hold’em (poker variety) — LIMIT
• 7A. Proof you weren’t part of the crime, say — ALIBI
• 8A. Roll around in the morning? — BAGEL
• 9A. Purchase price — COST

Down

• 1D. Thick piece of concrete — SLAB
• 2D. Light purple — LILAC
• 3D. Ol’ buddy ol’ pal — AMIGO
• 4D. Has good chemistry (with) — VIBES
• 6D. Lean to one side — TILT

Here are the filled in answers:

All told, a pretty quick and straightforward NYT Mini Crossword. This one took me 1:05 to solve, as my knowledge of Texas Hold’em is not great, and I kept thinking LAVENDER instead of LILAC which obviously doesn’t fit. Oh well!

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!