About Mini #353
Mini #353 is the daily 5×5 for Friday, September 18, 2026. Its grid has four black squares, laid out as stacked pairs in the top-left and bottom-right corners, which leaves 21 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's four five-letter, four four-letter and two three-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 7-Across, “Slow down there!”, at three words; the longest is 6-Across, “Light brown eye color, or a common nut”, at eight words. Clues worth knowing about before you start:
- Written as a quotation: 7-Across, “Slow down there!”
- Marked as a short form: 6-Down, “Interstate, for short”
There's no fill-in-the-blank this time. 7-Across, “Slow down there!”, is written as a quotation, so try saying it out loud and thinking of another way to say the same thing. For more ways in, see the solving tips.
How this grid compares
This layout appears in 26 of the 299 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to September 18, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. The day before (September 17, 2026) also had four black squares, arranged differently.
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 14 clues.
More for September 18, 2026
Stuck? The hints for September 18, 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 #352 (September 17, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Hairstyle worn in a knot”; the day after, Mini #354 (September 19, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “Feel unwell”.