About Mini #359
Mini #359 is the daily 5×5 for Thursday, September 24, 2026. Its grid has two black squares, laid out as single squares in the top-right and bottom-left corners, which leaves 23 white squares for ten answers: five Across and five Down. By length, that's six five-letter and four four-letter answers.
The shortest clue is 5-Across, “Not asleep”, at two words; the longest is 7-Across, “Spoken through the nose, like some voices”, at seven words. Clues worth knowing about before you start:
- Written as a quotation: 8-Across, “Same here”
There's no fill-in-the-blank this time. 8-Across, “Same here”, is written as a quotation, so try saying it out loud and thinking of another way to say the same thing. Some clues lean on a name or title, such as 6-Down, “Tech billionaire Musk”; 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 79 of the 305 daily 5×5 puzzles in our library dated up to September 24, 2026. The layout is rotationally symmetric: turn the grid upside down and the black squares land in the same places. The day before (September 23, 2026) also had two 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 24, 2026
Stuck? The hints for September 24, 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 #358 (September 23, 2026), opens with 1-Across, “A soak in the tub”.