Friday March 13 2026 NYT Mini Crossword Hints and Answers

March 13, 2026 by

Abigail

Need help with today's NYT Mini Crossword? Here are all the clues, hints, and answers for Friday, March 13, 2026. Hints only when you're ready for the full solutions.

What Is the NYT Mini Crossword?

The NYT Mini Crossword is a fast 5x5 crossword puzzle published daily by The New York Times. It's designed to be solved in minutes, making it a perfect daily brain warm-up before tackling the full crossword. Today's puzzle is a real stumper — a couple of the clues use visual tricks where the position of a letter within the clue is itself the answer.

Across Clues and Answers — March 13, 2026

1 Across: "___, queen!"

Hint: An enthusiastic exclamation of affirmation, popularised in drag culture.

Answer: YAS

4 Across: Waiter's handout

Hint: You look at this before ordering your food.

Answer: MENU

5 Across: Tiny invertebrate that, when grouped in the thousands, makes up a coral

Hint: A small marine organism that builds reef structures over time.

Answer: POLYP

6 Across: Scoop of sour cream

Hint: A generous, rounded dollop of something creamy — the word itself sounds like what it describes.

Answer: DOLLOP

7 Across: Spicy wing, as seen on a popular YouTube talk show

Hint: Think of a celebrity interview show where guests eat increasingly fiery chicken wings.

Answer: HOT ONE

8 Across: Comparative suggested by this visual puzzle: PQRsTUV (Note: the "s" is dropped below the other letters)

Hint: Look at where the letter S sits relative to the others — its position is your answer.

Answer: SLOWER

(Because the S in the clue is positioned lower than the surrounding letters.)

Down Clues and Answers — March 13, 2026

1 Down: Like SpongeBob and Spirit airplanes

Hint: Think of the colour shared by a famous cartoon sponge and a budget airline's branding.

Answer: YELLOW

2 Down: "Bueller…? Bueller…?"

Hint: This word means "anybody at all" — the teacher in the film was calling for just one response.

Answer: ANYONE

3 Down: Meal suggested by this visual puzzle: pqrStuv (Note: the "S" is raised above the other letters)

Hint: The S is the highest letter in the clue — what meal does "upper" remind you of, with an SUPPER**

(Because the S in the clue is raised to the upper position.)

4 Down: "___ bene" (Italian for "very good")

Hint: An Italian musical and conversational intensifier meaning "very."

Answer: MOLTO

5 Down: Amenity in a Florida backyard, perhaps

Hint: Given Florida's climate, many homes have one of these for swimming.

Answer: POOL

6 Down: Agcy. at the center of a 2026 government shutdown

Hint: A US federal department with a three-letter abbreviation, recently in the news amid budget disputes.

Answer: DHS

A Note on Today's Visual Clues

Two of today's clues — 8-Across and 3-Down — use a clever visual trick where the position of the letter S within the clue text is itself the key to the answer. For 8-Across, the lowercase S sits below the other letters, leading to SLOWER. For 3-Down, the uppercase S sits above the other letters, pointing to SUPPER. It's an inventive construction that makes this Friday grid trickier than it looks at first glance.

More Daily Puzzle Help

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