NYT Mini Crossword Answers Today, November 12, 2026

Joel Fagliano is the constructor of the New York Times (NYT) Mini Crossword for Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026: a 5-by-5 grid with 10 clues and black squares in two opposite corners. Every clue has a hint that opens on a tap, and the filled grid waits in the marked spoiler section at the bottom.

Hints for every clue

Across

• 1-Across (4 letters), Eye color of white tigers

  a primary color, the same one as a clear daytime sky; it starts with B and ends with E.

  Show the answer

  Blue
• 5-Across (5 letters), Home to the largest urban zoo in the United States, with “the”

  one of New York City’s boroughs; it starts with B, in the same square where 5-Down begins, and ends with X.

  Show the answer

  Bronx
• 6-Across (5 letters), Mayonnaise-like condiment

  a garlic-flavored sauce; four of its five letters are vowels.

  Show the answer

  Aioli
• 7-Across (5 letters), Not suited for leadership

  a negative prefix joined to a word for being in good shape; it starts with U and ends with T, the letter that closes 4-Down.

  Show the answer

  Unfit
• 8-Across (4 letters), What Chik’n Nuggets and Beyond Burgers lack

  the animal product that plant-based foods leave out; it starts with M and ends with T.

  Show the answer

  Meat

Down

• 1-Down (5 letters), Pickle juice

  the salty liquid a cucumber soaks in; it starts with B and ends with E.

  Show the answer

  Brine
• 2-Down (5 letters), Shower scrubber

  a rough bath sponge made from the fiber of a gourd; its second and third letters are the same.

  Show the answer

  Loofa
• 3-Down (5 letters), Dark, as a room

  the state of a space with no lights on; it begins with the same two letters as 7-Across and ends with T.

  Show the answer

  Unlit
• 4-Down (4 letters), Door to the outside

  the way you leave a building; it starts with E and ends with T.

  Show the answer

  Exit
• 5-Down (4 letters), L. Frank ___, author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”

  the author’s surname; it starts with B and ends with M.

  Show the answer

  Baum

The “with the” clue, a fill-in-the-blank and a new corner layout

Start with 5-Across if you want the day’s one trick. The clue does not ask for the zoo; it asks for the place that hosts it, and the closing words “with the” say that place is normally named with an article in front. The article is not part of the entry. Once you read it that way, every crossing letter confirms it, since the entry crosses all five Down entries.

Sorted by what they ask for, the 10 clues fall into these groups:

Clue type	Count	Clues
Plain definition or description	7	1-Across, 6-Across, 7-Across, 1-Down, 2-Down, 3-Down, 4-Down
Wordplay on the printed words	1	5-Across
Brand-name clue	1	8-Across
Fill-in-the-blank	1	5-Down
Question mark	0	none

5-Down is the only clue with a dotted gap, and it supplies the author’s first initial and the book title. Wednesday’s Mini had no blank at all.

The constructor changes again: Wednesday’s grid was by Ian Livengood, today’s is by Joel Fagliano. Counted from the saved data, the two grids share a square count but not a shape:

Count	Wed., Nov. 11	Thu., Nov. 12
Constructor	Ian Livengood	Joel Fagliano
Black squares	2	2
Where they sit	Both bottom corners	Top left and bottom right
White squares	23	23
Across lengths	5, 5, 5, 5, 3	4, 5, 5, 5, 4
Down lengths	4, 5, 5, 5, 4	5, 5, 5, 4, 4
Three-letter entries	1	0
Four-letter entries	2	4
Five-letter entries	7	6
Full-width Across entries	4	3
Full-height Down entries	3	3

Both grids have the same 23 white squares, yet today’s has no three-letter entry at all, and the corners sit on a diagonal. The four short entries (1-Across, 8-Across, 4-Down and 5-Down) each cross four others, while each of the six five-letter entries crosses five.

Our Mini Crossword page explains the play itself; today’s grid has 23 white squares to fill.

Keep the solve on the November 2026 printable calendar or the printable weekly calendar.

More for Thursday, Nov. 12: Wordle hints, Connections hints, Strands hints, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Larger grids: the Midi answers for Nov. 12 and the daily Crossword answers for Nov. 12. Wednesday’s grid is in the Mini answers for Nov. 11.

Today’s NYT Mini answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

Clue	Answer
1-Across	Blue
5-Across	Bronx
6-Across	Aioli
7-Across	Unfit
8-Across	Meat
1-Down	Brine
2-Down	Loofa
3-Down	Unlit
4-Down	Exit
5-Down	Baum

The answers come from the puzzle’s official data.

Yesterday's Mini Crossword answer

The Mini on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026: Across 1 Camel, 6 Olive, 7 Pixie, 8 Stuck, 9 Opt; Down 1 Cops, 2 Alito, 3 Mixup, 4 Evict, 5 Leek. Yesterday's hints and full solution.