About Mini #352
Mini #352 is the daily 5×5 for Thursday, September 17, 2026. Its grid has four black squares, laid out as single squares in all four corners, which leaves 21 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's six five-letter and four three-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 4-Across, “Cash, casually”, at two words; the longest is 8-Across, “Live comedy show with a weekly host and musical guest (abbr.)”, at eleven words. Clues worth knowing about before you start:
- Marked as a short form: 8-Across, “Live comedy show with a weekly host and musical guest (abbr.)”; 4-Down, “Flavor enhancer in some Chinese food (abbr.)”
There's no fill-in-the-blank this time, so a good first stop is the shortest slot: 1-Across has only three letters. Some clues lean on a name or title, such as 3-Down, “Country home to Mount Everest” and 4-Down, “Flavor enhancer in some Chinese food (abbr.)”; if one is unfamiliar, work its crossing answers first. For more ways in, see the solving tips.
How this grid compares
This layout appears in 32 of the 298 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to September 17, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. That's two black squares more than the day before (September 16, 2026), which had two.
Like every daily 5×5 in our library, it was generated at our “easy” difficulty setting. The same date also has a 6×6 with 12 clues and a 7×7 with 16 clues.
More for September 17, 2026
Stuck? The hints for September 17, 2026 give three hints per clue, the answer key reveals one answer at a time, and there's a printable copy for solving on paper. The day before, Mini #351 (September 16, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “The alphabet, informally”; the day after, Mini #353 (September 18, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Black-and-white whale also called a killer whale”.