The New York Times Crossword

The New York Times Crossword debuted on February 15, 1942 and quickly became the gold standard for American-style crosswords. Margaret Farrar edited the earliest Sunday grids, a daily edition joined on September 11, 1950, and the puzzle now anchors the Times’ entire games subscription with print, web, and app play.

• Launch: Sunday puzzle first published February 15, 1942.
• Daily debut: Monday–Saturday cycle added September 11, 1950.
• Digital era: Across Lite downloads in the 1990s; the official Games app arrived in 2014 with stats and streaks.
• Editors: Margaret Farrar, Will Weng, Eugene T. Maleska, and since 1993 Will Shortz, with Joel Fagliano leading digital projects.

Official access and pricing

Play the Crossword at NYTimes.com/crosswords. The daily puzzle and archive are part of the paid NYT Games or All Access subscription after any free trial; occasional promotional puzzles appear free, but streak tracking and stats also sit behind the paywall.

History and milestones

The Times originally resisted crossword publication, but World War II coverage convinced editors that a weekly puzzle would offer a welcome morale boost. Within a decade, solvers wanted a daily habit, leading to the modern Monday–Sunday difficulty curve. The Crossword became a proving ground for theme innovation in the 1970s and 1980s, introduced shaded rebus squares and meta elements in the 2000s, and now showcases constructor voices through mentoring programs that highlight under- represented authors.

Digitally, the Times embraced electronic solving with Across Lite files, later shifting to a browser app that tracks completion time, streaks, and solving aids. Subscription access bundles the Crossword with every NYT Games title, making it the flagship for the portfolio.

Difficulty increases predictably through the week: Monday clues are literal definitions; Wednesday introduces wordplay; Thursday leans on rebus squares or visual gimmicks; Friday and Saturday are themeless with long stacks and trickier, misdirected clue stems. Sunday is oversized (typically 21×21) with a broad theme and midweek difficulty, making it a family-solving staple.

Grid anatomy and clue styles

A standard daily grid is 15×15 with 180-degree rotational symmetry and no two-letter words. Theme entries run horizontally and often appear at symmetrical positions. Clue signals matter: a question mark hints at a pun, ellipses mean clues are connected, and abbreviations or language tags (Fr., Sp., abbrev.) confirm shortened answers. Recognizing crosswordese (EEL, ASTA, ORR) can open long entries even on Fridays.

• Starter clues: fill-in-the-blank, quote completions, and obvious plurals (-S, -ES) build a base.
• Theme tells: starred clues, long Acrosses, or unusual grid shading identify the central gimmick; write lightly until crosses confirm.
• Late-week traps: deceptive capitalization, foreign rivers, and hidden wordplay often appear in corner stacks—slow down and re-parse the clue from scratch.

Speed-solving and starting plans

For Mondays and Tuesdays, start with short Downs in the top-left to expose the first theme entry, then sweep clockwise. On Thursdays, jump directly to the longest Across entries to decode the gimmick before you invest time in surrounding fill. In themeless grids, identify the wide open corner with the fewest black squares; a single 10-letter stack can unlock half the puzzle.

• Drill sets: practice 3–5 Monday puzzles back-to-back to memorize common short fill, then move to Thursday archives to spot rebus tells.
• Timer discipline: solve untimed once to learn a theme, then repeat timed to improve typing efficiency and clue triage.
• Check tool: use “Check square” sparingly. Instead, reread clue grammar; mismatched tense or part of speech often signals the error.
• Starting squares: if stuck, use a Down clue with a proper noun—one confirmed letter from a name can propagate through an entire corner.

Long-term training and drills

Borrowing from the New York Times Wordplay column’s "Getting to Genius" series, keep a deliberate practice log. Solve three archived Monday puzzles in a row without a timer to catalog repeatable short fill; then replay them timed to measure typing speed. Repeat the loop on Thursdays to strengthen gimmick detection. Mark every unknown proper noun and create flash cards—names, rivers, minor-league teams—that recur weekly so you reduce future hesitations.

• Warm-up: scan recent puzzles for clue signals like “perhaps,” “maybe,” and question marks to rehearse common misdirect patterns.
• Anchors: practice building stacks by placing a 10-letter entry in the middle of a blank grid and brainstorming fair crossings. This mirrors the construction constraints of Friday themelesses.
• Route discipline: set a 30-second cap on any single corner before rotating to another quadrant—momentum often unlocks stalled areas.
• Endgame: finish each session by re-solving a completed grid with Down clues only. The perspective shift improves letter pattern recall for late-week puzzles.

Trivia and cultural notes

The Times Crossword popularized the Monday-to-Sunday difficulty curve followed by many outlets. It also standardized American clueing, where abbreviations and foreign terms are clearly signposted. Celebrity collaborations—from Bill Clinton to Wyna Liu’s constructor mentorships— have expanded its audience, while milestone puzzles (like the 75th anniversary grid in 2017) introduce playful stunts such as paired solutions or hidden audio clips. Constructors often hide mini-themes or pangrams; the publication notes these achievements in the daily Wordplay column and podcasts, helping solvers understand craft decisions.