NYT Crossword Answers for May 22, 2025

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THURSDAY PUZZLE — This is David J. Kahn’s 190th puzzle in The New York Times. Yes, you read that correctly — 190 puzzles. He’s introduced nearly 1,250 terms into the crossword lexicon. Some of those have been reused again and again, like AIR BALL (which has appeared 11 times), I’M OUT (34), ARUGULA (8) and ANOUK (18). Others have appeared only once, but could stand to see the light of day again today, like BEVS and POP HIT.

Today’s puzzle shows us that Mr. Kahn is sharper than ever. This was an especially satisfying and mind-bending Thursday, with a higher-than-usual quantity of delicious, top-quality theme material, and plenty of enjoyable fill on the side. I particularly liked 37-Down, which I found to be delightfully straightforward and funny.

Oh. One other thing. Tomorrow, we’ll be sending out the 100th edition of our Easy Mode newsletter, in which Christina Iverson, a puzzle editor, creates easy clues for the Friday crossword. Make sure you’re signed up; we’ve got some festivities planned.

Today’s Theme

I always like to work backward from the revealer, which, in this puzzle, is a three-parter: MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING. The theme answers feature the word “all,” a synonym for EVERYTHING, except it’s been changed to the name of a national currency.

For example, at 35-Across, we have the clue [Luminous meteor [South Africa]]. The answer is “fireball,” but since money changes everything, we put FIREBRAND in the grid, because the rand is South Africa’s local currency. Jordan uses the dinar, South Korea the won, Costa Rica the colón and Iran the rial.