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Every morning brings a brand-new challenge from the NYT Mini. A puzzle packed into a small grid, built to test wit and vocabulary. Just five across and five down clues—yet each entry asks for sharp focus and quick thinking.
Today’s Mini dropped like clockwork. April 21’s crossword served another clever blend of pop culture, history, and sharp wordplay. From food to famous names, the clues touched every corner of knowledge.Here’s what today’s Mini holds in store for its intrepid puzzle solvers.
The Monday puzzle greeted solvers with a playful mix. The top left corner opened with the trickiest clue of the day. A word linked with parrotfish? That was CORAL, and it threw some solvers off early.
Once the puzzle got going, momentum grew fast. The clue for ABOVE came in clean. So did RAMEN, which warmed things up nicely. Then came SMART, a sharp description. The word ANY followed as a closing remark that felt familiar in tone.
1A clue: What the beaklike teeth of a parrotfish are used to bite
Answer: CORAL
Parrotfish graze on coral to eat, employing their tough, parrot-beaked teeth.
6A clue: On top of
Answer: ABOVE
This is an adverb that means higher than something else.
7A clue: Noodle soup with "tonkotsu" and "shoyu" varieties
Answer: RAMEN
Popular Japanese noodle soup famous for flavors such as pork-based tonkotsu and soy-based shoyu.
8A clue: Sharp as a tack
Answer: SMART
This familiar idiom means someone is extremely clever or quick-witted.
9A clue: "___ questions?"
Answer: ANY
Commonly placed at the end of directions or descriptions to encourage further questions.
Each of these answers came with a little twist or flavor. Wordplay with a splash of knowledge—that’s what makes the Mini tick.
2D clue: His presidential center is being built on Chicago's South Side
Answer: OBAMA
Barack Obama's official museum and center are being constructed in his hometown.
3D clue: Like Caesar and Cicero
Answer: ROMAN
Both of these figures were from ancient Rome.
4D clue: Tex ___, animator who drew Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
Answer: AVERY
Tex Avery was a classic cartoonist famous for developing Looney Tunes characters.
5D clue: Gave for a short time
Answer: LENT
This is an expression for lending something to somebody for a period.
These clues led right into culture and history. From animated legends like Tex Avery to Julius Caesar’s Roman roots, every answer had a name or story behind it.
This pocket-sized puzzle comes fresh every morning. Just a few clues, yet always a spark of learning or laughter. One might stumble on a fish fact or recall an old cartoonist. These grids pull memory from different shelves of the brain.
NYT Mini sits among a larger world of puzzles—Wordle, Strands, Connections. But the Mini holds its own with compact challenge. Quick to solve, tough to forget. And available to all who crave a brain boost at sunrise or sunset.
The NYT Mini Crossword for April 21, 2025, made Monday brighter. From corals to cars, presidents to parrotfish—it covered ground in just ten clues.
Mini fans have another solved puzzle on their conscience now. Streaks are ongoing. Curiosity piques. And tomorrow arrives with a new set of hints.
Each answer may seem simple, but the thought it sparks lasts much longer. These puzzles sharpen the brain and stir the mind. With every solve, the Mini turns into more than a game—it becomes a daily mental routine.
