Games Like the NYT Mini Crossword: 7 Quick Daily Puzzles

The Mini’s appeal is speed. A five by five grid, the same clue style as the big crossword, and a timer that tells you whether you beat yesterday. Most solvers finish in under a minute and then want something else of the same size.

Here is what to play next, from the closest cousin to puzzles that only share the Mini’s spirit.

Bigger grids, same clue style

NYT Midi Crossword

The Midi sits between the Mini and the full crossword. It is larger than five by five but still small enough to finish with a coffee, and the extra room means longer answers and a hint of theme. It is the natural next step. Midi crossword answers.

NYT Crossword

The daily flagship has run since 1942, and its difficulty is scheduled: Monday is the easiest and Saturday the hardest. If the Mini feels easy, try a Monday or Tuesday grid before anything else. Crossword answers, and our crossword solver if one clue is holding up a corner.

One clue at a time

Minute Cryptic

One cryptic clue per day. Each clue joins a straight definition to a set of wordplay instructions that build the same answer. It is a quick daily puzzle that teaches a whole new way of reading clues. Minute Cryptic hints.

Bracket City

Bracket City hides a sentence of trivia inside nested bracketed clues. Solving an inner clue replaces it with its answer, which unlocks the clue around it. It feels like solving a crossword from the inside out. Bracket City hints.

Same quick daily win

Daily Jumble

Four scrambled words and a pun, in about the same time as the Mini. It has run in newspapers since 1954. Jumble answers.

Waffle

Six interlocking five-letter words in a crossword-shaped grid, already filled in but scrambled. You swap letters to fix it. If you like how crossword answers lock together, Waffle is that idea turned into a logic puzzle. Waffle solution.

Wordle

Most Mini solvers already play it, but it belongs here: one five-letter word, six guesses, about the same time commitment. Wordle hints.

Getting faster at the Mini

Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues, since they are almost always the easiest entries. In a five by five grid, every across answer touches every down answer, so one confident entry gives you a letter in five others. And don’t be afraid of plurals: a clue in the plural often means an S in the last square. When a clue just won’t fall, our Mini crossword answers list each clue separately so you can reveal one without spoiling the rest.

Word Game Clues is an independent hint site and is not affiliated with The New York Times or any of the game publishers mentioned here.