Today's NYT Midi Crossword Answers
Stuck on puzzle #24,036? Take a hint at a time, or drop straight to every Across and Down answer. Nothing spoils until you tap.
Hints, one at a time
Welcome back, puzzler. The Midi Crossword for Wednesday, September 30, 2026 is live: a 9x9 grid with 30 clues to fill in, 17 Across and 13 Down, built around the theme "Understated".
Here's how this page works: the five hints below work up from opening letters to the entry that anchors the whole grid, so reveal them one at a time and stop the moment the theme shows itself. Every Across and Down answer sits in the green box further down, locked behind a tap. Nothing here reveals itself on its own, not the theme and not a single entry.
Letters first, then two answers outright. Stop when the grid starts filling itself.
Drumroll, please…
NYT Midi Crossword Answers for September 30
Spoiler below · tap an answer to revealAcross (17)
Clues 1-19
School stat
Gently apply
Hawaiian neckwear
Gardener's watering aid
Screw up
Like a tooth that's barely attached
To the ___ degree
"Baseball is 90% mental. The ___ half is physical" (quote attributed to Yogi Berra)
Whiskey barrel material
Org. with auditors
To the point
Signs, as an important document
Clues 20-25
"Only playing with you!"
Dessert slice that a Trivial Pursuit game token resembles
Big name in jeans
Muddy enclosure
Observed
Down (13)
Clues 1-18
Powell of 2025's "The Running Man"
Cheeky
Tabletop game with a plastic puck
Thingamajig
Not shy about speaking one's mind
Sudsy six-pack
Like a ghost pepper
Mischievous Norse god ... or a homophonic hint to the ends of 3- and 4-Down
Cooling appliances: Abbr.
Nurses, as some 6-Down
Absolute ___ (slang term for an exceptionally muscular person)
River in Egypt
Clues 21
"Why ___ the chicken cross the road?"
Tap an answer to reveal it, open a clue range to browse it, or show the whole grid at once.
Yesterday's longest answer (#24,428): DOVETAIL · full breakdown ›
About today's grid #24,036
30 answers in total: 17 Across and 13 Down.
The longest answer runs 9 letters; the shortest run 3 letters (12 of them).
E is the most common letter, appearing 9 times across the grid.
Puzzle #24,036, published Wednesday, September 30, 2026, edited by Ian Livengood and built by Hanh Huynh.
Midi Crossword strategy that actually helps
Proven habits from top solvers, useful today and every day.
Skim the whole list before writing anything. An easy Down clue often unlocks a tricky Across neighbor.
The Midi often builds several answers around one theme. Spotting it early can crack a few tricky clues at once.
Three and four letter answers lean on common words and abbreviations, so bank those first.
A "?" flags wordplay rather than a definition. On a Midi the punning clues usually belong to the theme, so one of them names the pattern.
Unsure of a letter? Solve the crossing clue instead of guessing, and let it fill in the gap for you.
The longest answers usually need the most crossing letters, so they're often the last ones to click.
How to play NYT Midi Crossword
The rules in full, for anyone arriving without them.
The Midi sits between the Mini and the full New York Times crossword: bigger than five by five, small enough to finish over a coffee. The clue style is the same, but longer answers mean more room for themes and wordplay.
- 1 Open with the shortest answers
Three and four letter entries are the most constrained on the board, so they are the fastest way to build crossing letters.
- 2 Work outward from the corners
Corner squares have the fewest crossings, which means fewer ways to be wrong once you commit to a letter.
- 3 Trust the crossings over the clue
When a clue is not clicking, solve the words that cross it instead and read the answer off the letters you already have.
- 4 Fill every square
There is no mistake limit. You can check or reveal a square in the app if you want to keep moving.
The New York Times
Mid-size grid, bigger than the Mini
No limit, the clock is running
Daily, in line with the NYT Games lineup
The Midi is long enough to carry a theme but short enough that the theme touches most of the grid. If two long answers share a pattern, assume the rest of the long entries follow it too.
NYT Midi Crossword, answered
Quick answers to the questions we get every day.
What time does the new Midi Crossword come out?
The Midi resets at midnight in your local timezone, wherever you are. If the clue list below matches the one on your screen, you have the right day's grid.
How is the Midi different from the Mini and the full Crossword?
The Midi sits between the two: a mid-size grid, usually 10x10, with more clues than the tiny Mini but far fewer than the full daily Crossword. It's built around a single theme, the way the full Crossword often is, but finishes in a fraction of the time.
Why do some Midis feel harder than others?
Like the other NYT crosswords, difficulty can vary day to day: some puzzles lean on straightforward definitions, while others lean more on wordplay, theme logic, and less common phrasing.
Can I play past Midi Crossword puzzles?
Yes, if you're an NYT Games subscriber, the app and site keep an archive of past Midis. This page's own archive grows day by day as we cover more puzzles.
How is the Midi different from the Mini?
Size, mainly, and what that size allows. The Mini is small enough that every answer is short and mostly definitional, while the Midi has room for longer entries, which in turn leaves room for a theme and for wordplay. If you finish the Mini in under a minute and want more without committing to the full grid, the Midi is the step up.
Today's hints for every game
Same spoiler-safe format, for each daily puzzle we cover.
Past Midi Crossword answers
The longest answer from each recent Midi, organized by month. Long entries are where the Midi puts its theme, so this doubles as a record of what each day was about. Today's stays blurred until you tap it.
| Date | Puzzle | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 30Today | #24,036 | AIRHOCKEY |
| Sep 29 | #24,428 | SAFEHAVEN |
| Sep 28 | #23,838 | EYECOLORS |
| Sep 27 | #24,259 | PINKEYE |
| Sep 25 | #24,362 | SIDEBYSIDE |
| Sep 24 | #24,197 | SUBWOOFER |
| Sep 23 | #24,111 | ALPHAMALE |
| Sep 22 | #24,399 | CHOOCHOOS |
| Sep 21 | #24,147 | THEBIGEASY |
| Sep 20 | #24,331 | COUNTRYCLUB |
| Sep 18 | #24,302 | FROOTLOOPS |
| Sep 17 | #24,296 | TUXEDO |
| Sep 16 | #24,260 | TOOKBACK |
| Sep 14 | #23,616 | BLACKPINK |
| Sep 13 | #24,242 | BRIGHTRED |
| Sep 11 | #24,079 | CENSORSHIP |
| Sep 10 | #24,308 | PROVIDENCE |
| Sep 09 | #24,092 | AMAZING |
| Sep 08 | #24,306 | PROTOTYPE |
| Sep 07 | #24,229 | BUMBLEBEE |
| Sep 06 | #23,540 | SOTHATSIT |
| Sep 03 | #23,354 | ROWBOATS |
| Sep 02 | #24,354 | ALPINESKI |
| Sep 01 | #24,298 | MANICOTTI |
| Aug 31 | #23,586 | ONIONRING |
| Aug 30 | #24,274 | STREETMAP |
| Aug 28 | #24,201 | SWIPERIGHT |
| Aug 27 | #24,108 | NOGOODNIK |
| Aug 26 | #23,778 | IMADEITUP |
| Aug 25 | #24,297 | JAVASCRIPT |
| Aug 24 | #24,352 | ELIJAHWOOD |
| Aug 23 | #24,276 | BREAKSDOWN |
| Aug 21 | #23,549 | GEARHEADS |
| Aug 20 | #24,225 | BACKSLAPS |
| Aug 19 | #24,289 | WAGTHEDOG |
| Aug 18 | #24,171 | SALESSLIP |
| Aug 17 | #23,596 | MAGICBULLET |
| Aug 16 | #23,611 | SORELOSER |