Looking for help with today’s NYT Mini Crossword puzzle? Here are some hints and answers for the puzzle.

Credit: NYT

It’s Friday, which means it’s my last day writing these Mini Crossword guides for a couple weeks. It’s been swell! I hope everyone has a fun weekend! Let’s get right to it…

Looking for yesterday’s NYT Mini Crossword? Check out our hints and answers right here.

The NYT Mini is a smaller, quicker, more digestible, bite-sized version of the larger and more challenging NYT Crossword, and unlike its larger sibling, it’s free-to-play without a subscription to The New York Times. You can play it on the web or the app, though you’ll need the app to tackle the archive.

Spoilers ahead!

How To Solve Today’s Mini Crossword

Before we get to the answers, here’s the first letter for each word in today’s Mini.

Across

• 1A. The fitting missing letters in OOGLE MA _ — G
• 4A. Amtrak express train — A
• 6A. With 2- and 5-Down, distinction for kids who finish their whole dinner — C
• 7A. Desires, with “after” — L
• 8A. Honey Nut Cheerios mascot — B

Down

• 1D. “Silly” birds — G
• 2D. See 6-Across — P
• 3D. Without — S
• 4D. Knee tissue that’s prone to tearing, for short — A
• 5D. See 6-Across — C

Okay, onto the answers! Remember, spoilers ahead!

Across

• 1A. The fitting missing letters in OOGLE MA _ — GPS
• 4A. Amtrak express train — ACELA
• 6A. With 2- and 5-Down, distinction for kids who finish their whole dinner — CLEAN
• 7A. Desires, with “after” — LUSTS
• 8A. Honey Nut Cheerios mascot — BEE

Down

• 1D. “Silly” birds — GEESE
• 2D. See 6-Across — PLATE
• 3D. Without — SANS
• 4D. Knee tissue that’s prone to tearing, for short — ACL
• 5D. See 6-Across — CLUB

Here are the filled in answers:

This was a tricky one, though my time — 2:15 — was partly because I left the puzzle going while multitasking. Still, the CLEAN PLATE CLUB trio really threw me off for a bit. Hadn’t heard that phrase before. Others, like ACELA, I had no clue about. Thankfully we had ACL and BEE and SANS and GPS, all the easy ones, to help. Oh well, all’s well that ends well!

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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!