Asterisks are commonly seen in crossword clues, but they can mean different things depending on the placement of the asterisk itself as well as how often they’re used or whether the grid has a theme or not. There is no rule on how asterisks can be used when constructing a crossword puzzle, so you’ll have to pay attention to the specific puzzle, but I’ll also share with you how asterisks are typically used in a crossword clue to get you started.
In a recent NYT Mini Crossword grid published May 26th, 2023, NYT used asterisks throughout the crossword clues, which stumped some solvers! As a result, you, like others, may be wondering what an asterisk means when it shows up in an NYT Crossword Clue or any other crossword puzzle.
I wish I had a hard and fast rule for you, but asterisks can be used in a variety of ways in constructing crossword clues. For example, in the May 26th, 2023 Mini, they were used in place of the letter T as seen here: the crossword clue “Irri*a*ing cri**er” should be read as “Irritating critter” and then solved as normal. In this case, the way the asterisk was used to replace the letter T became more apparent after reading through multiple clues from the grid.
Other crosswords have used an asterisk at the beginning of a clue to indicate that it is a themed clue, as many grids have a larger them at play. I have even seen the NYT use an asterisk in place of the word “Star” in each crossword clue, e.g. “*Board” to be read as “Starboard” in the May 1st, 2016 main grid (requires a subscription to access). In this grid, the asterisk was used to represent the word “Star” but also was part of the puzzle’s theme.
Daily Themed Crossword uses asterisks regularly at the beginning of clues as they routinely use themed grids. It is also seen in the Daily Pop Crossword, LA Times Crossword, and WSJ Crossword.
It is very seldomly used to indicate an action, which is something that people may have used when chatting online. For example, the USA Today Crossword had the clue *shrug* which would be the equivalent of an online “shrug” but neither a themed clue nor asterisks being used to replace a letter or word.
Merriam-Webster defines an asterisk as “the character * used in printing or writing as a reference mark, as an indication of the omission of letters or words, to denote a hypothetical or unattested linguistic form, or for various arbitrary meanings” or as “the character * thought of as being appended to something (such as an athletic accomplishment included in a record book) typically in order to indicate that there is a limiting factor consideration which makes that thing less important or impressive than it would otherwise be.”
In wider usage, asterisks can be used to reference a footnote by putting the asterisk at the end of a fact or sentence to indicate to the reader to visit the footnotes section for more information and/or clarification. Asterisks have also been used to censor words, like “f***.” You might also see it being used in a mathematical context to mean “times” or “multiplied by,” like 3*5 = 15 (three times/multiplied by five). In computer science, an asterisk is often used as a wildcard character, which means it could be replaced by any other character.
Based on how I’ve seen asterisks used in crossword puzzles, it is most commonly used to indicate a clue related to the puzzle’s theme if it appears at the beginning, but it can also be used as a placeholder for a letter or word that repeats through the rest of the clues that have the same format, such was the case in the recent NYT Mini Crossword’s clues.
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