I would've aced today's Mini Crossword if not for 1 Down. That was something I had never heard of before, and I tried a varietion on it as just a guess, then had to backtrack when

Are you excited for the NYT Mini Crossword clues and answers for January 9, 2025? This game is quite different from Wordle, Strands, and Connections. Here players need to guess the words and arrange them in across and down columns.

The NYT Mini is a quick and dirty version of the newspaper's larger and long-running crossword. Most days, there are between three and five clues in each direction on a five by five grid, but the puzzles are sometimes larger, especially on Saturdays.