The Wednesday, April 9, 2025, New York Times Mini has five Across answers and five Down answers. The complete solution is below; stop before the next heading if you want to solve it without spoilers.
April 9, 2025 NYT Mini answers
Spoilers: The list below gives every clue and answer. Parade’s April 9, 2025 answer article is the source for the clue-and-solution pairs.
Across
- 1A — “Word after ‘cheap as’ or ‘old as’”: DIRT
- 5A — “Sean _____, director who won four Oscars for ‘Anora’”: BAKER
- 6A — “‘It’s the Hard-Knock Life’ musical”: ANNIE
- 7A — “Pastry at a tea shop”: SCONE
- 8A — “Works on a quilt, perhaps”: SEWS
Down
- 1D — “Never give a sword to a man who can’t _____”: Confucius: DANCE
- 2D — “‘You don’t need to tell me!’”: IKNOW
- 3D — “Straps for a horseback rider”: REINS
- 4D — “One might be shady”: TREE
- 5D — “Big Mouth Billy ____ (singing animatronic fish)”: BASS
About this puzzle and its clues
April 9 fell on a Wednesday in 2025; the year matters because the same month and day can fall on a different weekday in another year. The NYT archive listing names Christina Iverson as the constructor for that date’s Mini. The individual clue answers above are reported by Parade, rather than verified here against the original grid.
How to play or replay the Mini
The New York Times describes The Mini as a smaller crossword: fill the white squares with letters so the Across and Down answers intersect correctly. Finishing the puzzle triggers music and a congratulatory message. The game’s help tools can check or reveal a square, an answer, or the entire puzzle.
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Eligible subscribers can play in the NYT Games app, on the web at nytimes.com/crosswords, or in the News app. To find an older puzzle, use the official archive: choose Mini, select a month and year, then choose the puzzle. Games and All Access subscribers have archive access; other users have limited access. Check the Times’ current help information for the latest eligibility terms.
According to NYT’s help information, weekday and Saturday Mini puzzles become available at 10 p.m. EST the evening before their listed publication date; Sunday puzzles become available at 6 p.m. EST on Saturday.
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