Here are all the NYT Mini Crossword answers for Monday, July 27, 2026.
Across
1A: CHAT – Rolling series of comments on a Twitch stream
5A: ROME – It wasn’t built in a day
6A: LEMON – Flavor of yellow Skittles
7A: OPEN – Store window sign
8A: BERG – Floating mountain of ice
Down
1D: CREPE – Parisian pancake
2D: HOMER – Creator of the ‘Odyssey’
3D: AMONG – ‘Relax, you’re ___ friends’
4D: TEN – The word ‘decimate’ initially meant to reduce something by a factor of this
6D: LOB – Defensive tennis shot
Notable Clues
ROME (5A) is one of those crossword answers that arrives almost automatically when the clue is right. The idiom “Rome wasn’t built in a day” is so embedded in the language that solvers rarely pause on it, and the four confirmed letters help anchor intersecting Down entries early in the solve.
HOMER (2D) is clued as “Creator of the ‘Odyssey.'” The ancient Greek poet attributed with both the Iliad and the Odyssey is a reliable crossword entry – five letters, strong crossing value in every direction. The clue specifies only the Odyssey, the more famous of the two epics for general audiences, keeping the reference accessible without being obscure.
TEN (4D) carries today’s most educational clue. “Decimate” comes from the Latin decimare, which described a Roman military punishment: one soldier in ten was selected by lot and executed as collective discipline for cowardice or mutiny. The word originally meant removing a tenth, not total destruction – a meaning almost entirely lost in modern usage. TEN is the answer because that is the factor, one in ten. Solvers who know the etymology drop it immediately; those who read “decimate” as “destroy completely” may need crossing letters from the Across entries to confirm it.
BERG (8A) is a neat piece of crossword economy. “Floating mountain of ice” describes an iceberg, and BERG is the Dutch-derived suffix standing alone. The full word comes from Dutch “ijsberg” (ice mountain). Short, clean, and easily confirmed once the crossing Down letters are in place.
For recent Mini Crossword coverage, see our answers for July 24, 2026 and July 18, 2026.
