New York Times Crossword Puzzle Seattle Times (2024)

FAQs

What is the acceptance rate for The New York Times crossword puzzles? ›

I got rejected probably 15, 16-plus times — it's about a 3 percent acceptance rate to get published there. They get 200 submissions a week for seven spots. Eventually, last year, they accepted the Monday puzzle, which ran in August. And then, in October, they wrote back, and we worked on this Sunday puzzle together.

The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in The New York Times Magazine, is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be as difficult as a Thursday puzzle.

At an average finish time of nine minutes and twenty-four seconds over those 2,192 puzzles, that's roughly 20,589 minutes or 343 hours or 14.3 full days spent doing crossword puzzles, time enough to walk between a capital city founded in 1050 (OSLO) and a WWI battle locale (YSER).

Pick out the clues that are meant to be the easiest and tackle them first. See anything you definitely know? There's no better boost to your solving ego than filling in a few entries right off the bat. You can confirm whether an answer is right by solving the entries that cross it.

How hard could it be? The Saturday crossword is actually the hardest puzzle of the week. Mondays have the most straightforward clues and Saturday clues are the hardest, or involve the most wordplay. Contrary to popular belief, the Sunday puzzles are midweek difficulty, not the hardest.

Just at a regular pace, not rushed but not too relaxed, either, I find Monday = 5 minutes or so, Sunday around 60 or so, assuming normal difficulty for that day of the week. Saturdays can be devilish at times, and at least 60 then. Unless Friday is really bizarre, under 30, usually.

A Workout for Your Brain

While crosswords and puzzles have their charm, immersing oneself in a gripping narrative can light up our neurons in extraordinary ways. Engaging in such a mentally stimulating activity may play a role in maintaining cognitive agility and fostering continuous learning.

Matching Answer. JAR.

Is there a trick to crossword puzzles? ›

Fill in the blanks first

Every puzzle usually has a small handful of fill-in-the-blanks, so if you're looking to get an early confidence boost, scan the list of clues for fill-in-the-blanks and knock them out early.

Research has shown a positive correlation between crossword puzzles and daily life functions, especially for people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Experts emphasize that larger clinical trials are needed to unravel the observed associations between crossword puzzles and how our brains function.

The Times gets around 150-200 crossword submissions per week through a digital portal.

By 2020, more than 850,000 people subscribed to Games—about a 40 percent increase from the year before—and more than 28 million people were playing at least one game. The product was rebranded from Times Crossword to Times Games.

Scoring 100% on

The answer is acing.