Words to memorize if you’re a regular solver
I get a lot of questions from readers asking for tips and tricks for solving the Crossword. For the next two weeks, I’ll be talking about a popular tip for new solvers: Take some time to memorize words and names that frequently appear in crosswords. Some words and names are used repeatedly because of their convenient letter patterns. Today I’ll be going over some names of people and places that you’re likely to encounter more than once, and some of the ways we have clued them. ERIE: ERIE is one of the most commonly used proper nouns, having been used over 1,400 times. ERIE is frequently clued as the lake, the canal and the Pennsylvania town, but to make the clue less obvious on a later day of the week, we might not use any of these words. [Buffalo’s county] is a clue we’ve used 14 times, and we’ve also used trickier clues like [Cleveland abuts it] and [Northern terminus of I-79]. ARES and EROS: I confess that I still have to think about which Greek god is which. ARES is the god of war, and EROS is the god of love. One trick for remembering is that EROS anagrams to ROSE, a flower often associated with love. EROS has appeared over 900 times, and ARES over 800, so it would be useful to remember them! Some common clues or cluing angles we have used for EROS are [Cupid’s Greek counterpart], [Cherubic Greek god] and [Psyche’s lover, in Greek myth]. ETON: ETON is a British boarding school that has been attended by many royals as well as many other famous Britons. This was one of the first words I remember learning from crosswords. Since it appears so often (over 800 times), the editors are often trying to find a fresh way to clue it — but you can pretty reasonably guess that the answer is ETON just about any time there’s a clue about a boarding school. IRA: While we often clue this as a type of savings account, we also frequently clue it as a name. IRA Gershwin the lyricist and IRA Glass the radio personality are the two most popular IRAs in the Crossword. IRA has appeared over 900 times in the Crossword, and 168 of those times were as the Gershwin. In the last 10 years, though, IRA Glass has been clued more than twice as often as IRA Gershwin. ENO: Brian ENO is an English musician known for breaking new ground in ambient and electronic music. His name has appeared over 300 times in the Times Crossword. He is frequently clued as a pioneer in the music industry, and his name can conveniently be found backward inside the word PIONEER! [Ambient music pioneer Brian], [Brian of ambient music] and [Bowie collaborator Brian] are some clues we’ve used more than once.
Solve Friday’s Crossword on Easy Mode!
In today’s Wordplay column, Sam Corbin writes about the legacy of this puzzle’s constructor. For expert hints on today’s puzzle, read her column. Were you able to solve the Friday puzzle with Easy Mode? We want your input! Share your experience with us on the X platform, on Threads or by email. Easy vs. HardIn today’s puzzle by Robyn Weintraub, one of my favorite clues is for 33-Across: [Small branch of Marvel Comics?] You might have to stretch your brain a bit! For Easy Mode, I went with the more straightforward clue [Young, treelike Marvel character]. I’ll let you decide if he can be considered a “small branch.”
How are we doing? Thanks for playing! Subscribe to New York Times Games. If you were forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up to receive it regularly here. P.S. The answer to Easy vs. Hard is BABY GROOT.
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