NYT Midi Crossword Answers Today, November 15, 2026

The New York Times (NYT) Midi Crossword for Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026, is titled “Keep It Simple” and has 44 clues on an 11-by-11 grid, credited to Jeffrey Martinovic. A hint waits behind a tap for every clue, and the answers are in the marked section at the bottom.

What the title “Keep It Simple” points to

The title is advice, and the puzzle takes it literally: four long entries each hide the same three consecutive letters of the alphabet, the ones a child learns first. The clue for 31-Across, which calls its answer child’s play and adds a hopeful aside about this grid, is the key to the other three.

Read that clue first. Once you see the pattern, test it on 12-Across and 22-Across, the two long entries whose clues describe a place and a type of clothing, and on 17-Across, a food.

The four entries sit on rows 3, 5, 7 and 9, every other row from the top. The hidden letters shift sideways from one to the next: they land in columns 4 to 6 on row 3, 6 to 8 on row 5, 2 to 4 on row 7 and 9 to 11 on row 9.

The least literal clue today

2-Down: Cruising along? The question mark tells you that “cruising” is not about speed on a highway. Picture a holiday on a large passenger ship and ask where that traveler is. The answer is one word of four letters, and its first and last letters match.

Hints for every clue

Clue text is copied exactly as printed, blanks included. Where an answer is a phrase in the grid, the hint gives the length of each word.

Across

• 1-Across (5 letters), Unflattering press coverage, for short

  negative publicity, written as an adjective plus two initials; two words, 3 and 2 letters; it starts with B and finishes with R.

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  Bad PR
• 6-Across (4 letters), Do without food

  to go a day with no meals; it starts with F and finishes with T.

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  Fast
• 10-Across (5 letters), Cellphone bill figure

  the amount of data or minutes a monthly statement counts; it starts with U and finishes with E.

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  Usage
• 11-Across (5 letters), View from a mountaintop

  a wide scenic outlook; it starts with V and finishes with A.

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  Vista
• 12-Across (11 letters), Place to recover from knee or shoulder surgery

  a clinic for physical therapy; two words, 5 and 6 letters; it starts and finishes with R.

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  Rehab Center
• 14-Across (3 letters), “Hey, buddy old ___!”

  a friend, filling the blank of a greeting; it starts with P and finishes with L.

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  Pal
• 15-Across (3 letters), Beach ball filler

  the gas inside that keeps it round; it starts with A and finishes with R.

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  Air
• 16-Across (3 letters), Mechanic’s cloth

  a scrap of fabric for wiping greasy hands; it starts with R and finishes with G.

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  Rag
• 17-Across (8 letters), Signature Maryland seafood offering

  a pan-fried patty of shellfish meat; one word, a sea creature followed by a baked treat; it starts with C and finishes with E.

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  Crab Cake
• 19-Across (3 letters), Down in the dumps

  unhappy; it starts with S and finishes with D.

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  Sad
• 21-Across (4 letters), Skin bump

  a fluid-filled lump under the surface; it starts with C and finishes with T.

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  Cyst
• 22-Across (8 letters), Chemists’ attire

  white jackets for the laboratory; two words, 3 and 5 letters; it starts with L and finishes with S.

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  Lab Coats
• 26-Across (3 letters), Chicago trains

  elevated rail cars, plural; it starts with E and finishes with S.

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  Els
• 27-Across (3 letters), “I’ll take that as ___”

  a refusal, spoken as the end of the sentence; two words, 1 and 2 letters; it starts with A and finishes with O.

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  A No
• 28-Across (3 letters), Gaming console with a motion-sensing remote

  a Nintendo system whose name has two of the same letter at the end; it starts with W.

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  Wii
• 31-Across (11 letters), Like child’s play … or (hopefully!) this puzzle?

  a four-word comparison to something simple; words of 2, 4, 2 and 3 letters; it starts with A and finishes with C.

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  As Easy as ABC
• 34-Across (5 letters), “Inferno” author

  the medieval Italian poet whose Divine Comedy begins with that book; first name only; it starts with D and finishes with E.

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  Dante
• 35-Across (5 letters), Animated ogre of film

  a green swamp-dweller who stars in his own movies; it starts with S and finishes with K.

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  Shrek
• 36-Across (3 letters), Living room staples

  screens with remotes, plural; it starts with T and finishes with S.

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  TVs
• 37-Across (5 letters), On edge

  irritable and quick to snap; it starts with T and finishes with Y.

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  Testy

Down

• 1-Down (4 letters), Rude sound preceding “Excuse me”

  a belch; it starts with B and finishes with P.

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  Burp
• 2-Down (4 letters), Cruising along?

  a four-letter word for being on a voyage in open water; it starts and finishes with A.

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  Asea
• 3-Down (4 letters), Roald of children’s literature

  the surname of the author of Matilda; it starts with D and finishes with L.

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  Dahl
• 4-Down (3 letters), Scottie Scheffler’s org.

  the group that runs the main tour for golf professionals, by its three initials; it starts with P and finishes with A.

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  Pga
• 5-Down (5 letters), Metal rod placed in concrete

  a steel bar that reinforces a slab; it starts and finishes with R.

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  Rebar
• 6-Down (3 letters), Ominous sight when swimming in the ocean

  a shark’s dorsal part sticking out of the water; it starts with F and finishes with N.

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  Fin
• 7-Down (6 letters), Wide of the mark

  off course; one word; it starts with A and finishes with Y.

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  Astray
• 8-Down (6 letters), T-bones and tomahawks

  thick cuts of beef, plural; it starts and finishes with S.

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  Steaks
• 9-Down (6 letters), Chain with a red bull’s-eye logo

  a big-box retailer; it starts and finishes with T.

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  Target
• 11-Down (4 letters), Boom or bust, e.g.

  the part of speech that both of those words can be; it starts with V and finishes with B.

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  Verb
• 13-Down (3 letters), U.S. org. concerned with bugs

  bugs as hidden microphones, so the spy agency based in Langley, Virginia, by its initials; it starts with C and finishes with A.

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  Cia
• 17-Down (3 letters), U.S. org. concerned with bugs

  bugs as germs, so the federal public health agency based in Atlanta, by its initials; it starts and finishes with C.

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  Cdc
• 18-Down (3 letters), Includes in an email chain, for short

  carbon copies, plural, written as initials; it starts with C and finishes with S.

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  CCs
• 19-Down (5 letters), Tortilla chip dip

  a tomato-based dip, mild to hot; it starts with S and finishes with A.

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  Salsa
• 20-Down (6 letters), Missing

  not present at roll call; it starts with A and finishes with T.

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  Absent
• 22-Down (4 letters), Metal alchemists tried to turn into gold

  a heavy gray metal; it starts with L and finishes with D.

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  Lead
• 23-Down (5 letters), Places of refuge

  green patches in a desert, plural; it starts with O and finishes with S.

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  Oases
• 24-Down (3 letters), ”___ idea?”

  the word that opens a question about someone’s thoughts; it starts with A and finishes with Y.

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  Any
• 25-Down (5 letters), Eggs go-with

  browned bread that sits beside them on a breakfast plate; it starts and finishes with T.

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  Toast
• 28-Down (4 letters), Major conflicts

  large-scale armed fights, plural; it starts with W and finishes with S.

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  Wars
• 29-Down (4 letters), Possible response to someone who claims to be able to do a double backflip

  a skeptical challenge to prove it; two words, 1 and 3 letters; it starts with I and finishes with T.

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  I Bet
• 30-Down (4 letters), Disgusting

  gross, in a childlike word; it starts with I and finishes with Y.

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  Icky
• 32-Down (3 letters), Off-roader’s ride

  a four-wheeled ride for rough trails, by its initials; it starts with A and finishes with V.

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  Atv
• 33-Down (3 letters), ___-wolf

  a female pronoun that precedes a hyphen and the animal; it starts with S and finishes with E.

  Show the answer

  She

How today’s grid is built

The grid has 121 squares: 21 black and 100 letters. Of the 44 entries, 16 have 3 letters, 10 have 4, 10 have 5, 4 have 6, 2 have 8 and 2 have 11. The longest ones are the theme entries: the 11-letter pair runs the full width of the grid on rows 3 and 9, and the 8-letter pair starts on column 4 of row 5 and column 1 of row 7.

Entry length	Entries	Across	Down
3 letters	16	8	8
4 letters	10	2	8
5 letters	10	6	4
6 letters	4	0	4
8 letters	2	2	0
11 letters	2	2	0

Three 6-letter Downs stand in a stack in the top right, columns 9, 10 and 11, and the fourth runs down column 3 from row 6 to the bottom edge. The two 11-letter entries each cross 11 Down entries, one per column, so a single wrong letter in either of them breaks a lot of crossings. The 8-letter theme entries cross 8 each.

The grid is not mirrored: the black squares of the top left do not have a twin in the bottom right.

Where to start in this grid

Four clues are fill-in-the-blank: 14-Across, 27-Across, 24-Down and 33-Down. All have three letters and give a quick foothold. The same-worded pair at 13-Down and 17-Down is a good test of the Across entries they cross: 13-Down starts in row 3 and 17-Down starts in row 5.

With 44 clues on an 11-by-11 grid today, the rules of the format are on our Midi Crossword page.

Yesterday’s grid and answers are in Saturday’s Midi page. Plan the week with our weekly planner you can print or the printable calendar for November 2026.

More of Sunday’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Connections hints, Strands hints, Pips hints and Spelling Bee hints.

Today’s NYT Midi answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

Four of today’s answers are initials: the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and an all-terrain vehicle (ATV).

Clue	Answer
1-Across	Bad PR
6-Across	Fast
10-Across	Usage
11-Across	Vista
12-Across	Rehab Center
14-Across	Pal
15-Across	Air
16-Across	Rag
17-Across	Crab Cake
19-Across	Sad
21-Across	Cyst
22-Across	Lab Coats
26-Across	Els
27-Across	A No
28-Across	Wii
31-Across	As Easy as ABC
34-Across	Dante
35-Across	Shrek
36-Across	TVs
37-Across	Testy
1-Down	Burp
2-Down	Asea
3-Down	Dahl
4-Down	PGA
5-Down	Rebar
6-Down	Fin
7-Down	Astray
8-Down	Steaks
9-Down	Target
11-Down	Verb
13-Down	CIA
17-Down	CDC
18-Down	CCs
19-Down	Salsa
20-Down	Absent
22-Down	Lead
23-Down	Oases
24-Down	Any
25-Down	Toast
28-Down	Wars
29-Down	I Bet
30-Down	Icky
32-Down	ATV
33-Down	She

The hidden run in the theme is ABC. It sits inside Rehab Center, Crab Cake and Lab Coats and closes As Easy as ABC.

Yesterday's Midi Crossword answer

The Midi on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026: Across 1 Etc, 4 Abs, 7 Blt, 10 Boa, 11 Tea, 12 American Medical Association (AMA), 13 Brr, 14 Taxicab, 16 Optic, 18 Tko, 19 Orchard, 21 Too, 22 Spy On, 24 Waltz In, 26 Oil, 28 Ice, 29 Ade, 30 Rna, 31 God, 32 Pea, 33 Sew; Down 1 Ebb, 2 Toro, 3 Carpooled, 4 Attic, 5 Beachside, 6 Sax, 7 Back Doors, 8 Lmao, 9 Tab, 15 I Try, 17 Trot, 20 Apnea, 21 Taco, 23 Nine, 24 Wig, 25 Zap, 27 Law. Yesterday's hints and full solution.