Daily Puzzle Solution
NYT Crossword
Sunday, December 21, 2025
The New York Times crossword puzzle for Sunday, December 21, 2025 features 143 clues. Today's puzzle has an average answer length of 5.7 letters. The longest answer is "PRELUDETOAKISS".
Total Clues
143
Longest
PRELUDETOAKISS
Avg Length
5.7
Shortest
LEE
Featured Clue
"Duke Ellington classic with the lyric "That was my heart serenading you""
14 Letters
PRELUDETOAKISS
ALLComplete Solution List
Sweetly, on scores
5DOLCE
The Kite Runner protagonist
4AMIR
Areas of influence
7SPHERES
Skulks
6PROWLS
Wrangler alternative
3LEE
Yellow avenue in Monopoly
7VENTNOR
Treatment
6REMEDY
Mental health org.
3APA
Hyatt alternative
4OMNI
Course catalog?
4MENU
Covers completely
5COATS
Rap's Run-___
3DMC
Hard-boiled genre
4NOIR
Dark side
3YIN
__ daddy
3POP
Adopted, as a pet
6TOOKIN
Wyoming peak
5TETON
Sailors' patron
6STELMO
Kemo ___ (the Lone Ranger)
4SABE
Former big name in browsers
8NETSCAPE
Doggone it!
4DARN
By way of, informally
4THRU
Joins gradually
9EASESINTO
Brightly colored Mediterranean flowers
8SUNROSES
1950s hangout with a jukebox
8SODASHOP
When Aries transitions to Taurus
5APRIL
Blue colorant obtained from the indigo plant
4ANIL
Some Arctic transports
9SKIPLANES
Game piece made of four squares
9TETROMINO
S.E.C. football powerhouse, for short
4BAMA
Comment from someone caught in the rain
8IMSOAKED
Wasn't folded in a suitcase, say
7LAYFLAT
Input of certain mining
4DATA
Timer setting
4OVEN
I'll pass ...
3NAH
Eponymous British financier James ___
7BARCLAY
Fraudulently make seem like
9PALMOFFAS
Fleetwood Mac hit named for a Celtic goddess
8RHIANNON
U.F.O.-watching org.
4SETI
A bit off, say
6ONSALE
TheForce.net for "Star Wars," for example
7FANSITE
Montalbán who played Khan in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"
7RICARDO
By saying this you mean well
4BIEN
Emanations
5AURAS
Developed, as baby teeth
6GREWIN
Like a corporation with a new logo, perhaps
9REBRANDED
Wrap seller
4DELI
Boldly face
5BRAVE
Sci-fi miniaturizer
9SHRINKRAY
Kind of cipher in which A becomes B, B becomes C, e.g.
6CAESAR
Few and far between
4RARE
___ Park, Calif.
5MENLO
Garden interloper
4WEED
The Family Circus cartoonist Bil
5KEANE
Stage direction
5ENTER
Skips over
6ELIDES
Grammy-winner Erykah
4BADU
Great Dane of cartoons, informally
5SCOOB
Stick to
6ADHERE
Some time ago
4ONCE
Fast start?
12ASHWEDNESDAY
Evaded, as a sensitive issue
12DANCEDAROUND
Lying faceup
6SUPINE
Regulars at parks with ramps, informally
9SKATERATS
More livid
6IRATER
Guardians, on a scoreboard
3CLE
Keister, in Leicester
4ARSE
Damp, mildewy quality
4MUST
Silence
4HUSH
Make furious
5STEAM
___ Gorman, "The Hill We Climb" poet
6AMANDA
Bit of birdspeak
7CHITTER
Tennis line judge's ruling
5ITSIN
Air
5ETHER
Reply after having one's memory jogged
6YESYES
Church parts crossing naves
9TRANSEPTS
Shoe company with an iconic checkerboard design
4VANS
Apple: Fr.
5POMME
"What's done is done!"
9GETOVERIT
Mentally overpower, with "out"
5PSYCH
Spending romp
5SPREE
Duke Ellington classic with the lyric "That was my heart serenading you"
14PRELUDETOAKISS
West side of L.A.?
3LOS
Copy
6MIRROR
Counterpart of a sub
3DOM
2015 chart-topping hit for the Weeknd
14CANTFEELMYFACE
Output of certain mining
4ORES
Disney subsidiary
4ESPN
Descendant
5SCION
"Is there still time for me to join you?"
7AMILATE
They hold water
7VESSELS
Father, familiarly
6OLDMAN
Phillipa of Broadway
3SOO
Iced-tea-and-lemonade refreshments
13ARNOLDPALMERS
Like most moccasins
6SLIPON
Symbolic for its time
7OFANERA
51 to the hour
8NINEPAST
A little help?
3ELF
Some pings, in brief
3IMS
"Fie on ___!" (Shakespearean cry)
4THEE
Blueprints
8SCHEMATA
Is without
5HASNT
Knock 'em dead!
4SLAY
Rice-a-__
4RONI
Author Zora Neale ___
7HURSTON
Most minimal
6BAREST
Green shade
5OLIVE
Some Korean exports
4KIAS
Org. with its own alphabet
4NATO
Hiding place
3DEN
Baseball slugger's stat
4RBIS
Ta-ta!
5SEEYA
Abbr. not found on most smartphones
4OPER
Tricky pool shot
5MASSE
Aren't ___ lucky one?
4ITHE
Fits one inside the other
5NESTS
Shirt-collar stiffener
4STAY
Calmed deceptively
6LULLED
Teslas, e.g., for short
3EVS
Borderlands director Roth
3ELI
Informant
6SOURCE
Essential
4NEED
Bird used to deliver messages on "Game of Thrones"
5RAVEN
Woman's nickname that sounds like two letters
4EVIE
___ four
5PETIT
It has a lot of secretaries
7CABINET
Prickly denizen of coral reefs
13PORCUPINEFISH
Rabid in appearance
8FROTHING
Noodled on, with "over"
6MULLED
Where to find six "presents" in this puzzle?
12UNDERTHETREE
Fancy that!
3OOH
What Joe Montana was in the '80s
5NINER
Gene pools?
8DNABANKS
One who knows the drill?: Abbr.
3SGT
Mentally with it
5SHARP
Famed lawyer in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial
14CLARENCEDARROW
It might be good for a change
3DYE
Just getting started with
5NEWAT
A TD scores six of these
3PTS
Coolidge who sang the theme for "Octopussy"
4RITA
Girlfriend in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
6SLOANE
Someone enjoying a walk in the park
5HIKER
Porcine : pigs :: cervine : ___
4DEER