NYT Mini Crossword Answers and Hints Released for August 27, 2025

New York, Aug. 27, 2025 - The New York Times today unveiled the hints and solutions for its daily Mini Crossword, offering solvers guidance on one of the week’s trickiest puzzles.

According to reports from Parade magazine, the Mini Crossword, a free bite-sized companion to the Times’s flagship crossword, features a 5x5 grid that resets each evening at 10 p.m. ET. Wednesday’s edition leaned heavily on reversals and wordplay, challenging players to read clues literally and manipulate words backward.

Across clues showcased the theme:

• 1 Across, “How many roads lead to Rome, it’s said,” yielded ALL.
• 4 Across, “Total laughfest,” yielded RIOT.
• 6 Across, “Flip phone?,” yielded ENOHP, the reversal of “phone.”
• 8 Across, “Reverse dunk?,” yielded KNUD, the reversal of “dunk.”
• 9 Across, “Ass-backward?,” yielded SSA, the reversal of “ass.”

Down clues offered further wordplay:

• 1 Down, “Where the Wild Things ___,” yielded ARE.
• 2 Down, “Need for accessing an online meeting,” yielded LINK.
• 3 Down, “Birds that swim underwater to catch fish,” yielded LOONS.
• 5 Down, “‘And so, as a result …’,” yielded THUS.
• 6 Down, “A park bench kissing and such, for short,” yielded PDA.

The playful reversal theme drew both amusement and frustration. “Flip phone?” and “Reverse dunk?” required solvers to literally flip their expectations, while “Ass-backward?” delivered a succinct twist. For many, the Mini Crossword remains a nightly ritual alongside Wordle and Connections, prized for its brevity and wit.

Hints were also published by the Economic Times and Mashable, helping solvers avoid complete spoilers while nudging them toward the answers. With its free access and brisk solving time-often under five minutes-the Mini continues to attract a broad, global audience, cementing its place as a quick mental workout before bedtime.

For those who prefer to tackle tomorrow’s challenge unaided, the Mini resets at 10 p.m. ET tonight.