How to solve today’s Mini crossword.

Credit: NYT

It’s Veterans Day, so a kudos goes out to all you veterans who play the Mini Crossword or any other puzzle games and happen to be reading this post! It’s a pretty simple one today, so let’s get right to it.

Looking for Monday’s Mini Crossword? Here’s our guide.

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:

The NYT Mini Crossword

Screenshot: Erik Kain

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.

Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes

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. Villain’s counterpart — H

5A. California governor Newsom — G

6A. Home to Prada (and pasta) — I

7A. Shipping company with a purple-and-orange logo — F

8A. Three-pointer, in basketball lingo — T

Down

1D. Hard person to please — H

2D. Get around — E

3D. “Inside Out” girl — R

4D. Deep black gemstone — O

5D. “Today is a ___ . That’s why it’s called the present” — G

Today’s Mini Crossword Answers

Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!

Across

1A. Villain’s counterpart — HERO

5A. California governor Newsom — GAVIN

6A. Home to Prada (and pasta) — ITALY

7A. Shipping company with a purple-and-orange logo — FEDEX

8A. Three-pointer, in basketball lingo — TREY

Down

1D. Hard person to please — HATER

2D. Get around — EVADE

3D. “Inside Out” girl — RILEY

4D. Deep black gemstone — ONYX

5D. “Today is a ___ . That’s why it’s called the present” (cliché) — GIFT

Here are the filled in answers:

Today’s Mini

Screenshot: Erik Kain

This was pretty easy, alright. 25 seconds! I knew all the Across until it came time to answer a basketball-related question (despite having played basketball in high school). But it was easy enough to just fill in the blanks from the downs to solve that. I’d say this counts as a three-pointer.

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!

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/11/10/nyt-mini-crossword-clues-and-answers-for-tuesday-november-11/

This detailed match analysis covers key moments, player performances, and tactical insights.