LA Times crossword

One paper, several crossword sizes

Los Angeles Times games publish a daily crossword beside a mini crossword and a midi crossword. The mini is described by the paper as a compact daily grid aimed at a short solve and a recorded time. The daily is the longer crossword. The midi sits between them, the same idea the New York Times uses when it places a 9 by 9 between a 5 by 5 and a 15 by 15.

Search strings such as crossword puzzles la times, crossword la times, and los angeles times mini crossword all point at that games desk. The spelling shifts (LA, L.A., Los Angeles) do not change the puzzle. What changes is the grid you open: mini for speed, daily for a full theme, midi when you want a middle length.

A mini crossword rewards clean crossings and everyday words. A daily crossword has room for a theme: several long entries that share a trick, plus short fill that crosses them. If you are coming from the New York Times weekday, the habit is the same. Read the clue, enter a letter, let the crossing confirm or break the guess.

What a solve looks like

You still fill white squares from numbered clues, across and down. Black squares separate entries. Every white square should belong to one across word and one down word, which is why a wrong letter eventually fights a crossing. That rule is the whole teaching tool of the form. When two clues want different letters in one square, one of the clues was misread.

The Los Angeles Times mini page also talks about streaks and personal best times. Speed is part of the mini contract: the grid is small enough that a clean solve can land in a few minutes. The daily asks for a longer sitting and more patience with theme entries you cannot see until the crossings arrive.

Folio's mini is 5 by 5, in the same size family as a newspaper mini. The daily here is 7 by 7 and split by a center bar into four chambers, so each chamber solves like a tiny block of three-letter words. The Sunday grid is 9 by 9. None of them is a reprint of a Los Angeles Times diagram.

Print, archive, and answers

A printable LA Times crossword is the empty grid plus clues. Filling it from a leaked answer key teaches less than checking one square at a time. On this site the printable page draws the blocks and numbers and lists the clues without printing the solution. The play page can still reveal a letter if you decide the crossing is stuck.

Newspaper answer pages are useful after you have finished, to confirm a guess the checker did not mark. They are a poor first stop. If the search is really 'today's LA Times solution,' use the paper's own site. If the search is practice, start with Harbor, Lantern, or Margin in the mini list, then move to the daily chambers.

Names people type for the same puzzle

Search logs collapse a lot of spellings onto one games desk: LA Times crossword, L.A. Times crossword, Los Angeles Times crossword, crossword la times, and los angeles times mini crossword. The mini queries are the only ones that change which grid you should open. Everything else is the daily. The Los Angeles Times lists the mini at latimes.com/games/mini-crossword, next to the longer crossword and a midi. Treat the midi as the middle length, the way a 9 by 9 sits between a 5 by 5 and a 15 by 15 at the New York Times.

A fair American grid gives every white square an across word and a down word of at least three letters. Black squares usually mirror if you rotate the diagram half a turn. That symmetry is a constructor's habit, not a law of physics, but solvers notice when it is missing because the puzzle looks lopsided. Folio's three sizes keep that half-turn symmetry. The daily and Sunday diagrams are disconnected on purpose: a bar of blocks separates chambers so each three-letter word is checked inside its own block. Navigation stops at a block. An arrow key that would land on black only switches direction if that square starts a word the other way.

Clue voice is where papers differ more than rules do. A Los Angeles Times daily is still an across-and-down crossword. You will see straight definitions, a theme set on the longer entries, and short fill that exists to cross the theme. Question-mark clues are jokes or literal readings. A blank is a phrase to complete. Abbreviations in the clue ask for abbreviations in the grid. None of that requires the paper's copyrighted clue list. Harbor uses 'Not good,' 'Currency,' and 'Large bird of prey' as straight definitions so you can watch a letter get confirmed by the crossing.

Time is part of the mini contract on the LA Times games page, which talks about streaks and personal bests. Folio's timer starts when the board loads, pauses from the toolbar, and resumes. It is stored with the letters. Clearing the grid resets both. There is no account and no streak counter, because the archive has six diagrams rather than a new one every morning. The home page still rotates the mini by the New York date, so the board you open today stays that board until the date changes.

If you came here from a search for crossword puzzles LA Times, you already know the habit you want: one grid, today, across and down. Keep that habit on the paper's site when you want their clues. Use the three sizes here when you want the same interaction on words we wrote. The clue page explains blanks, question marks, and the word and. The archive lists every diagram with its size. Nothing on those pages is a scanned Times grid or a leaked fill.