Solve a Friday Crossword on Easy Mode
Why It’s Hard to Write Easy Clues
Easy Mode
June 19, 2026
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Mathieu Labrecque

Why It’s Hard to Write Easy Clues

Hello, friends. Ian Livengood here. Christina is on vacation, so I’ll be filling in for this week’s Easy Mode article. Let’s dive in!

Most solvers know the Crossword gets harder throughout the week, peaking in difficulty on Saturday. Difficulty is introduced through tough vocabulary, wide-open grids and, most importantly, challenging clues. Take the word BLUE, which can be clued a dozen ways, across all days of the week. A Monday-friendly clue for BLUE might be [The “B” of Roy G. Biv]. But a tough, Saturday clue could be [Down]. It’s easy for an editor to adjust the clue difficulty for an answer like BLUE.

But some answers are harder to peg to the appropriate level of difficulty. If ALAI is in a grid, it almost always has to be clued as [Jai ___], whether it’s in an early- or late-week puzzle. If we can’t adjust a clue’s difficulty, the solver may encounter an answer that feels way off from the rest of the puzzle. With that in mind, here are the four most difficult types of clues to adjust:

  • Spoken Phrases. A spoken phrase answer often gets a spoken phrase clue. I KNEW IT might be clued as [“Aha!”] on a Saturday, but could just as easily get the same clue on a Monday. Most spoken phrases don’t have many one-to-one substitutes for an answer, so the number of possible clues shrinks, which limits an editor’s flexibility.
  • Geographical Terms. If ULAN or AIX is in a grid, the distinct geographical term almost always is clued with something like [___ Bator] or [___-en-Provence]. Mongolian and French cities are worth knowing, but as an editor there are only so many ways to convey that information to the solver.
  • Names. This applies only when there is a single famous person with that name. There are many famous people named TED, which can get an easy or hard clue. But for a name like ILANA, there’s only [Glazer of “Broad City”], and it will get a nearly identical clue across all days of the week.
  • Fill in the Blanks. Some answers can be clued only as a partial phrase. For instance, A TO is almost always clued as [From ___ Z], across most days of the week. An editor is very limited in ways to make this type of clue easier or harder.

While a sprinkling of spoken phrases is usually welcome in a puzzle, constructors should think twice before including an example from the last three categories.

Are there any words or phrases we missed? Email us with examples that have the same clue across most days of the week.

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Mathieu Labrecque

What Have You Wanted to Know About Games?

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By New York Times Games

Solve Friday’s Crossword on Easy Mode!

Image of a 15 x 15 themeless crossword grid created by Jack Hatchett.
Grid by Jack Hatchett/Clues written by Christina Iverson

For expert hints on today’s puzzle, read the Wordplay column.

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Easy vs. Hard

In today’s Friday puzzle, 13-Across has the clue [Field trip?]. Could this be a reference to a school field trip or a veiled nod to the actress Sally Field? Nope! Sports fans might get this one quickly. For Easy Mode, Christina went with [“Victory lap,” for a baseball slugger].

13-Across, 11 Letters.

Last Day to Earn a Special Wordle Badge!

Celebrate five years of the game by solving through Friday. Subscribers can catch up on the rest of this week’s puzzles in the archive.

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We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to crosswordeditors@nytimes.com.

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P.S. The answer to Easy vs. Hard is HOME RUN TROT.

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