We prepared this amazing NYT Crosswords tips and tricks guide for the inexperienced new players. Before exploring some tricks, you must learn about major crosswords rules. In fact, crossword puzzles are non-transparent and perplexing balck holes into which your intellect is tested. Despite the challenges, you can break the ice with the right strategy in mind,and hence can solve the most enigmatic crossword puzzles. The legendary New York Times puzzles are no exception to this.
To be fair and square, crossword puzzles shouldn’t necessarily be the measure of your IQ, or even related to it. Similarly, it is no golden rule to have a Shakespearean armory of vocabulary. Therefore, understanding how crossword puzzles operate is the means to an end.
In this article, the Gray Lady will present to you beginner puzzlers some piece of advice on how to advance your game in crosswords. First and foremost, start with the Monday crossword and keep it at that level until you acquire experience and can move for a change.
This is especially crucial as the weekly New York Times crossword puzzles get harder and harder each passing day from Monday onwards. The most terrifyingly difficult puzzles to decipher are by far Saturday’s crosswords, not even Sunday as they have a midweek hardness level.
We’ve collected five NYT Crosswords tips and tricks from crossword experts that will assist you in upgrading your problem solving skills. Get ready to cross some puzzles with your favorite pen and let’s get going :
NYT Crosswords tips and tricks:
1. Use Our Website:
Some clues and answers cannot be solved unfortunately, so don’t beat yourself up for it. That’s why we sugget you to search for answers online. At this moment, our homepage of daily NYT crosswords answers comes in handy! You must wonder “You don’t say right”! Indeed, Keep in mind that games, even puzzle crosswords are meant to be fun and not at all infuriating.
Besides, try collaborating with a friend that can give you assistance and at the same time enjoy solving complicated crosswords together.
James Green, owner of Build A Head said “if you get stuck, you can ask a friend to help you solve it”. and to emphasize this point, one famous violet elephant called Barney once said “sharing is caring”. This is a great way to benefit from mutual interaction and solving crosswords.
2. Know The Lingo:
The first step is familiarization; get to know the crossword puzzle basics. For instance, if an abbreviation is required, you’ll notice the word “abbr”. Additionally, if you see “Letters” it usually refers to an abbreviation. To illustrate this, if you have a clue like “hospital ward’s letters”, the answer would often be “ICU”.
you can also check other hidden crossword puzzle clues to conveniently direct you to the answer you are looking for :
- Question Mark: when you see a question mark, it usually means that there could be a misdirection or a deceptive hint and hence it shouldn’t be taken as it is. You should read between the lines as there might be some wordplay going on or a possible pun.
- Pairings: These come usually as partners; for instance, a clue that reads “cause partner” then the word effect is the answer. This is because people always pair cause and effect together as partners.
- Perhaps or Maybe: The clue itself is an example of the answer. For instance, “sign direction, perhaps” may be interpreted as “stop”. Another example would be “keep cold, maybe” can be read as “refrigerate”.
- Slang: If you notice the word “familiarly” as a clue, then most likely the word you’re looking for is a slang word. Let’s say the clue is “enjoyed, familiarly” then the possible puzzle crossword is “dug”.
3. Preserve the Tense:
One of the best nyt crosswords tips and tricks that experts rely on. Paying special attention to the tense of the clue might be helpful. For instance, if the clue is in the present like “trade cross words’ ‘ then the answer will likely be in the present tense as well. That goes to say that “bicker” or “argue” might be the answer you’re trying to guess.
Although we hate to ruin the fun, this tip shouldn’t be taken at face value. The answer you’re chasing could be hidden in another tense. If The clue is “nurse”, the possible answer may be in another form, the noun “caregiver” is one of them. However, If it wasn’t the noun it may be the verb “breastfeeding” that is closely related to it or “nursing”.
If you find a homonym, then this entails that the crossword is both spelled and pronounced just like the clue, with a difference of meaning of course. The word “Lead” for example can be the type of metal or an action verb like “lead” the group towards success.
4. Start With The Easy Ones:
To be completely honest, becoming an expert puzzler will be in a day or two, so start lightly. To master the art of crossword and problem solving, you should think it through and time will be in your favor. Start with the short answers and the clues that are easily understandable. Don’t go for the complicated words just to beat the game for its sake. Make sure to fish as many easy answers as possible and reproduce your success three or more times. This will help you in recognizing the short answers at a blink of an eye.
At the beginning of your Monday crossword puzzle, verify whether you can find the easy answers first. Use your pencil to write them down while keeping an eye on types of clues like “fill in the blank” or “ abbreviation”.
5. Leverage Your Answer:
After establishing a good start with the crossword, it is time to confirm the answer and solve the clues that intersect with them. Say you have a clue that says “black Helloween animal” and you wrote cat, however the crossing doesn’t quite fit, maybe change it to “bat” and see how it will turn.
Contrariwise, you can use the crossing method to crack the clues that were a bit too baffling.
Timeshatter’s CEO Brian Donovan shares his humble opinion on this matter and says “Even if you can’t fill in the word entirely, fill in what you can. If you know the answer has to either be hats or caps, ill in “_a_s” since you are certain of those two letters.
That’s all for this guide. We hope that you are satisfied with this guide on NYT Crosswords tips and tricks. We believe that these tips will advance your solving skills. Finally, Please provide us with your constructive feeedback.