NYT Crossword Answers for May 29, 2025

Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky Clues

THURSDAY PUZZLE — John Kugelman’s puzzles have primarily been Sunday grids in The New York Times. This is his 11th crossword here, yet it’s only his second weekday puzzle.

He seems to have a good grip on the tricky Thursday shtick: A nice tug of war between the constructor and the solvers. We’ve seen a theme like today’s before, but for those of you who are beginning to solve Thursday puzzles and are wondering what just happened to you, remember: On Thursdays, anything can happen. Keep your mind open, and you’ll enjoy this puzzle much more.

Oh, and take another look at your grid when you are finished. Mr. Kugelman set a certain constraint for himself when making this puzzle, and it transforms the crossword into something really elegant. You can read more about it in his notes.

Today’s Theme

Mr. Kugelman offers three theme entries whose clues seem to be asking the wrong questions. How could the answer to the clue [Mensa, for one] at 19A be CONS? I mean, there could be something funky going on at this organization for Very Smart People, not that I want to start any rumors, but I doubt that this clue is about that.

I realized what was going on when I wrote in FLA for 36A’s [One with a minority opinion about the shape of the world]. The answer was most likely FLAT EARTHER, but where was the rest of it? Like most crossword themes, it turns out that the answer was right under my nose. When the entire eighth line of the grid is read from left to right, we get FLA EAR HER. That’s pretty close to the correct answer, but who stole my Ts?