How to Solve the New York Times Crossword (2024)

Originally published on Nov. 20, 2017

Would you like to improve your mental flexibility, learn a few interesting things every day and establish bragging rights among your friends? Solving crossword puzzles is like mental yoga — both challenging and relaxing at the same time. Plus, it’s fun, especially if you appreciate words and wordplay as much as I do. I believe that with patience and practice anyone can learn to solve crosswords. Once you master a few basic strategies, you’ll find that puzzle-solving is not only possible, but highly addictive. So let’s get solving!

How to Get Started

“Solving crosswords eliminates worries. They make you a calmer and more focused person.” — Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor and NPR puzzle master.

If you’ve ever picked up a crossword puzzle and said to yourself, “I am not smart enough” or “I don’t have a big enough vocabulary for this,” please allow us to let you in on a little secret:

A crossword puzzle is not a test of intelligence, and solving is not really about the size of your vocabulary. Becoming a good solver is about understanding what the clues are asking you to do.

You can absolutely learn to do that. We’re here to let you in on some of the rules that most clues follow, and to teach you how to read those clues so that they become easier to solve. It would be impossible to cover every instance of cluing, but we can get you up and running.

We’ve even included some tips and encouragement from the puzzle pros to help keep you motivated, like our very funny friend, Megan Amram, a writer for television shows like “The Simpsons” and “The Good Place.” Ms. Amram is a devoted solver and has also made a puzzle that ran in The New York Times.

“I understand how intimidating starting the crossword can be, but the bottom line is, believe in yourself. YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH TO DO THE PUZZLE. Look at me. I do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day, and I once tried to shoot a basket on the wrong hoop when I was on my 6th grade basketball team. Crossword puzzles are not about intelligence, they are about keeping your mind nimble and knowing what the sneaky trickster Will Shortz is asking of you. Show Will Shortz who’s boss by attempting the puzzle!” — Megan Amram

Got it? Now let’s get started.

First, decide how you want to solve: Are you a print-only person? Do you enjoy the extra help that comes from playing on the web or on-the-go with the app? If you subscribe, you get access to all the daily puzzles and the archive. And once you log in, you can save your progress across all the digital platforms.

Start With the Monday Puzzles

The Monday New York Times Crosswords are the easiest, and the puzzles get harder as the week goes on. Solve as many of the Mondays as you can before pushing yourself to Tuesday puzzles. You can thank us later.