The NYT Mini Crossword answers for Sunday, August 16, 2026 are BYOB, BRAVO, OOHED, STORY, and SHOT across, with BROTH, YAHOO, OVERT, BODY, and BOSS running down. It is a clean Sunday grid with no proper nouns except one, and no entry longer than five letters.
Here are the across clues and answers.
- 1A Guests must provide drinks – BYOB
- 5A “A hearty congratulations!” – BRAVO
- 6A ___ and aahed – OOHED
- 7A Part of a skyscraper or Snapchat feed – STORY
- 8A Goal-scoring attempt – SHOT
And the down clues and answers.
- 1D Soup base – BROTH
- 2D Internet giant with a purple logo – YAHOO
- 3D In-your-face – OVERT
- 4D Word before “language” or “lotion” – BODY
- 5D Person to whom you might say “I’ll have it on your desk tomorrow” – BOSS
The quirk of this grid is how much of it starts with the same letter. Five of the ten entries begin with B, and that is not a coincidence of the fill. BYOB puts a B in the first square and another in the last, and each of those squares launches a down word, BROTH from the first and BODY from the last. BRAVO adds a third B in the left column, which then starts BOSS. Solve BYOB, and you have effectively handed yourself the opening letter of three more answers.
STORY is the clue of the day. Part of a skyscraper or Snapchat feed works because both senses are current and neither is a stretch, which is the harder trick in a five-letter grid. Younger solvers tend to reach the Snapchat meaning first and older ones the architectural one, and both arrive at the same square.
OVERT is the entry most likely to cost a guess. In-your-face suggests something more aggressive than overt actually means, and BLUNT and BRASH both fit the letter count while feeling closer to the tone of the clue. The V from BRAVO is what settles it.
YAHOO is the only proper noun on the board and the only entry that dates the puzzle. Internet giant is doing generous work in 2026, though the purple logo is the fair part of the clue, and OOHED crossing it at the H makes the middle safe even if the brand does not come to mind.
Saturday’s puzzle, the Mini Crossword for August 15, was a larger and knottier grid built around the seven-letter DOGTAGS, with OWNGOAL and SWEATIT running down.
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