NYT Crossword Answers for June 11, 2025

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WEDNESDAY PUZZLE — As I’ve mentioned several times throughout my Wordplay tenure, geography isn’t my strong suit. I can’t name states based on their shapes; I have trouble locating European countries. Give me a trivia question about an archipelago, and I will give you the wrong answer.

Today’s crossword by Sam Koperwas and Jeff Chen played to that weakness (which may very well be your strength), and it was only by staring at the completed grid for a few minutes that I finally understood what I was looking at. One day, I will encounter a puzzle themed around my store of knowledge: pop and rap hits from the 2000s, the “Columbo” detective series and styles of pants.

Today’s Theme

At 18-Down, the constructors have inserted a [Natural dividing line on a U.S. map, as suggested by this puzzle’s circled letters]. Those letter clusters didn’t strike me as individually significant — but as a set, I realized, they represented state abbreviations: IA for Iowa, MO for Missouri, TN for Tennessee and so on.

The dividing line between these states is the MISSISSIPPI River (18D). To the left are Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. To the right are Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee and Mississippi itself (the river sits on its westernmost side). The states’ locations are also represented in relation to one another by their placements on the grid. It’s not just that they appear to the right or left of 18D — they also appear in locations representative of the U.S. map. (Visual accuracy may be table stakes in constructing geography-based crosswords, but it never fails to impress me.)

Tricky Clues

4A. Abbreviated clues solve to abbreviated entries. That’s one of many “must match” rules in crossword puzzles. [Co. badges, e.g.] shortens the word “company,” so the answer is a shortened description of company badges: IDS.