NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Thursday, October 23

We’re very nearly in the final week of October, with Halloween just around the corner and as always, we have a NYT Mini Crossword to solve. These have been mostly pretty challenging as far as Minis go these past few days, though yesterday’s was pretty easy. If you’re struggling with today’s crossword, read on for some extra clues and the answers.

Looking for Wednesday’s NYT Mini Crossword? Here are some hints and answers.

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. Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s — H

5A. Statement that’s self-evidently true — A

7A. Civic automaker — H

8A. What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin — A

9A. Foxlike — S

Down

1D. Verbal “lol” — H

2D. Brain signal transmitter — A

3D. Hits with a witty comeback — Z

4D. Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe — Y

6D. Name of the famous “Queen of Scots” — M

Today’s Mini Crossword Answers

Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!

Across

1A. Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s — HAZY

5A. Statement that’s self-evidently true — AXIOM

7A. Civic automaker — HONDA

8A. What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin — ANGER

9A. Foxlike — SLY

Down

1D. Verbal “lol” — HAHA

2D. Brain signal transmitter — AXON

3D. Hits with a witty comeback — ZINGS

4D. Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe — YODEL

6D. Name of the famous “Queen of Scots” — MARY

Here are the filled in answers:

I was a little late to this one because, quite frankly, a puzzle coming out at 7pm in the evening (10pm ET) isn’t ideal if you want to have any kind of a social life. I don’t have much of one, but occasionally I like to go out and that was the case this evening. I managed to solve it in 1 minute and 26 seconds when I got home, however. Burning the midnight oil, as it were. I was admittedly stumped by 1-Across which is ironic for several reasons.

First, I used to drink lots of HAZY IPAs, but my memory of beer-drinking is a little HAZY since I don’t drink anymore. And the weather was, well, not HAZY today but quite cloudy and misty and rainy. I knew that HONDA was the manufacturer of Civics, however, and that fear leads to ANGER. Foxes are SLY and you YODEL in the mountains, though I doubt MARY Queen of Scots yodeled much. Eventually I got HAZY and AXON and AXIOM.

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!