NYT Mini Crossword Answers and Hints for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026: All 11 Clues on a Wide Six-Column Grid

The New York Times (NYT) Mini Crossword for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, is six squares wide and five deep, with 11 clues by Joel Fagliano. Four Across answers run the full six letters, so the grid takes a little longer than a usual Monday Mini. Below is a hint for every clue, then the full answers in a marked spoiler section.

Hints for every clue

Across

• 1-Across (6 letters), Sound of fall leaves underfoot: the noise of stepping on something dry and brittle.
• 7-Across (6 letters), Santa’s laugh: one short syllable, said three times.
• 8-Across (6 letters), Hit film franchise with blue-skinned aliens known as Na’vi: James Cameron’s series set on Pandora.
• 9-Across (6 letters), Brain nerve cell: it fires signals to other cells.
• 10-Across (4 letters), “Say ___!” (“Alright, I get it”): the opposite of more.

Down

• 1-Down (4 letters), Action star Jackie: famous for doing his own stunts.
• 2-Down (4 letters), Wander this way and that: a verb that rhymes with stove.
• 3-Down (5 letters), Big name in moving vans: the orange-and-white rental trucks.
• 4-Down (5 letters), ___-Dame Cathedral: the Paris landmark.
• 5-Down (5 letters), Complete pandemonium: total disorder.
• 6-Down (5 letters), “Hook ‘em ___” (battle cry of the University of Texas): what a longhorn has on its head.

Solving tips

Start with the three gimmes: Santa’s laugh at 7-Across, the film franchise at 8-Across and Jackie at 1-Down. With those in, the six-letter rows fill from the left, and the Paris clue at 4-Down confirms the middle columns. 10-Across is the only short Across entry, so leave it for last.

Keep a streak log on our printable weekly calendar or the October 2026 printable calendar.

More of today’s puzzles: Wordle hints, Connections hints, Strands hints, Spelling Bee hints and Pips hints. Sunday’s grid is in our Mini answers for Oct. 25.

Today’s NYT Mini answers (spoilers)

Stop here if you still want to solve it yourself.

Clue	Answer
1-Across	Crunch
7-Across	Ho ho ho
8-Across	Avatar
9-Across	Neuron
10-Across	Less
1-Down	Chan
2-Down	Rove
3-Down	U-Haul
4-Down	Notre
5-Down	Chaos
6-Down	Horns

In the grid, Ho ho ho fills six squares with no spaces, and U-Haul fills five with no hyphen. The answers come from the puzzle’s official data.