NYT Crossword Answers for Feb. 23, 2024

Jump to: Tricky Clues

FRIDAY PUZZLE — Let’s talk about heteronym clues. They are some of the toughest for solvers to crack because they take advantage of an interesting quirk of the human brain: We sometimes make assumptions about the written word based on our experiences. That’s especially true when we are moving quickly, as some people do when they’re solving a crossword. When we finally solve such a clue by using the crossings, we feel like kicking ourselves for not seeing it sooner.

This type of clue is designed to bamboozle you. Not that you asked, but my advice is to not be too hard on yourself if you are fooled. And lean heavily on those crossings.

Spoiler alert: I’m going to discuss the heteronym clue in Larry Snyder’s puzzle. If you don’t want it to be spoiled for you, please click the “Tricky Clues” jump link above and you can skip this part.

Webster’s New World College Edition defines a heteronym as “a word with the same spelling as another or others, but with different meaning and pronunciation.” For example, “tear” can be a noun that means a drop of water, or a verb that means to rip.

Let’s take a look at 2D. I’m going to go out on a limb and bet that those who are just getting into late-week puzzles may have had some trouble with this one. The clue is “Early number?” with a question mark, so we already know that there are shenanigans. The natural assumption is that the clue refers to numerals, and that the word “early” hints at something that happened early in history. Could the answer have something to do with Roman numerals?

Congratulations, you’ve just been sent on a wild-goose chase. A solver can make some perfectly reasonable assumptions about this clue and still be wrong because the word “number” is not about numerals at all. The B sound in “number” is pronounced, and the clue is about an early form of anesthesia, or something that numbs. The answer is ETHER.