Yesterday’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, October 12, 2026

Joel Fagliano’s Monday Mini for October 12, 2026 is a 5×5 with two black squares in the top-left corner and two in the bottom-right.

Across

• 1 PIP — A pip is the painted dot on a domino face. P appears twice, at positions 1 and 3; one A/E/I/O/U vowel (I).
• 4 CRUSH — Everyday slang for a person you like secretly. One A/E/I/O/U vowel (U); no repeated letters.
• 6 HOPPY — I.P.A.s are often described as hoppy. P repeats at positions 3 and 4; Y is present but not counted among A/E/I/O/U here (one counted vowel: O).
• 7 ESPYS — The ESPY Awards are named for ESPN. Letters run E-S-P-Y-S, so S appears at positions 2 and 5 (not position 1). Counting A/E/I/O/U only, there is one vowel (E); Y is not counted as a vowel here.
• 8 FEY — Tina Fey of Mean Girls. Three letters; one A/E/I/O/U vowel (E), ending in Y.

Down

• 1 PUPPY — A doodle is a doodle-dog puppy. P appears three times (positions 1, 3, and 4), which is free information once any crossing P is in place. One A/E/I/O/U vowel (U); Y is not counted in that tally.
• 2 ISPY — The spoken game “I spy … with my little eye,” written without a space. One A/E/I/O/U vowel (I).
• 3 PHYS — The P in P.E. is phys. (physical education). Counting only A/E/I/O/U, this abbreviation has no vowels; Y is not counted as a vowel in that tally.
• 4 CHEF — Someone skilled with a skillet. Four letters (not five); one A/E/I/O/U vowel (E).
• 5 ROSE — A standard Valentine’s Day flower. Four letters; A/E/I/O/U vowels O and E (two).

The long Down stem PUPPY is the structural hinge: once it is in, PIP, the U in CRUSH, the double-P of HOPPY, the middle P of ESPYS, and the Y of FEY are constrained together. Publisher clue numbers stay as printed (1, 4, 6, 7, 8 Across; 1–5 Down)—they are not renumbered sequentially.

Yesterday’s New York Times Mini Crossword for Monday, October 12, 2026 is a Joel Fagliano 5×5. Black squares sit in the top-left and bottom-right corners, leaving short threes (PIP and FEY) at the open ends and full-width fives through the middle rows.

A reliable path is the triple-P Down stem: if 1-Down is the five-letter young-dog answer with P at positions 1, 3, and 4, the top domino three, the beer clue’s double P, the sports-award plural’s middle letter, and Tina Fey’s ending Y lock in together. Everyday vocabulary then fills the remaining crossings—CRUSH for the quiet admirer, CHEF (four letters) for the skillet specialist, and ROSE for the Valentine flower.

Watch the letter tallies that are easy to miscount: ESPYS places S at positions 2 and 5 (it does not start with S), and HOPPY doubles P only in the middle of the word. Counting A/E/I/O/U separately from Y keeps PHYS at zero counted vowels even though Y is present.

Play the official puzzle on the New York Times Games Mini Crossword page for that Monday date. TECHi keeps spoiler-safe hints above the full Across and Down list for this edition, with recent prior Minis in the history section.

Related TECHi pages: today’s Mini answers and how to play the NYT Mini.