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The Wednesday, May 14, 2025 NYT Mini Crossword has five Across and five Down entries. The answers are POLES, RHINO, EMBED, KARMA and NAY across, and PRE-K, OH MAN, LIBRA, ENEMY and SODA down. Two answer guides published for that date, from Forbes and Black Star News, agree on the full set.
Full answer grid
| Entry | Clue | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Across | Citizens of Poland / opposite ends of the earth | POLES |
| 6 Across | Second-largest living land mammal / animal with “white” and “black” varieties (really, they’re both gray) | RHINO |
| 7 Across | Place a YouTube video on a website / plant deeply | EMBED |
| 8 Across | Culture Club song “_____ Chameleon” / what’s coming to you | KARMA |
| 9 Across | What a horse might say to reject a suggestion / “No” vote | NAY |
| 1 Down | Early learning option in the U.S., for short / program for kids aged 3–5, informally | PRE-K |
| 2 Down | Expression said when exasperated / “That’s crazy, dude!” | OH MAN |
| 3 Down | Balanced astrological sign / sign after Virgo | LIBRA |
| 4 Down | Opponent in a way / sworn ___ | ENEMY |
| 5 Down | Baking ___, compound used for cooking or cleaning / pop bottles, e.g. | SODA |
Where the wordplay lands
Most entries are direct fills, but five clues carry a second reading that explains why they were hard to see at first.
- POLES works in two senses: the people of Poland, and the geographic poles at the opposite ends of the earth.
- RHINO is the answer to the clue’s joke about the two varieties. The clue notes that the white and black rhinos are both gray.
- EMBED is the tech sense, placing a YouTube video inside a web page, while the second clue plays on planting something deeply.
- KARMA completes the title of Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon,” and the second clue, “what’s coming to you,” uses the same word.
- SODA fits both “baking ___” and the pop bottle clue, so the grid crossing it is what confirms the entry.
About The Mini’s format and access
Forbes describes The Mini as a small version of the larger NYT crossword. It usually has three to five clues in each direction on a five-by-five grid, with larger puzzles sometimes appearing, especially on Saturdays. According to the same guide, the daily Mini is free on the NYT website or in the NYT Games app, while older puzzles in the archive require an NYT Games subscription. These access terms are as Forbes reported them; they were not checked against current NYT policy.
For a quick check, solve the Across entries first, since POLES and KARMA are the most distinctive and anchor the Down entries that cross them.
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Sources: Forbes and Black Star News answer guides for the May 14, 2025 Mini.
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