Puzzles, riddles, lateral-thinking problems, and the like Crossword Clue

We have the 12-letter answer for Puzzles, riddles, lateral-thinking problems, and the like crossword clue, last seen in the New Yorker Crossword January 14, 2026 puzzle. This answer will help you finish the puzzle you’re working on.

Puzzles, riddles, lateral-thinking problems, and the like Crossword Answer

↓9.

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Helpful Hints

Hint 1: Clue Definition

THINKING (adjective)
1. endowed with the capacity to reason
THINKING (noun)
1. the process of using your mind to consider something carefully

More New Yorker Crossword (1/14/2026) Answers

Across

1. “Jiminy Christmas!”

5. Bratty attitude

9. Pointless

14. Like a soft (but not mushy) avocado

15. Much worshipped celebrity

16. Spinning part of a helicopter

17. Ruck who played Connor on “Succession”

18. Julie & Julia writer/director Ephron

19. Subside

20. "Hold on a ___!"

21. Stack in the sink

23. Location of a business, in legalese

25. Treelike Tolkien creature

26. Some people get fifteen minutes of it

27. Like street parking that requires payment

31. “This Side of Paradise” author F. ___ Fitzgerald

33. Municipal measure of malfeasance

35. Planet captured in Voyager 1’s “pale blue dot” photo

36. Adele’s “Rumour ___ It”

37. Come up, as in conversation

38. Added amount

40. Some TVs and camcorders

41. Pittsburgh footballer

42. Assistance

43. Covet thy neighbor’s wife, say

44. Series starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a sleuth who lives at 221B Baker Street

48. Instruments for Paul McCartney, Sting, and Flea

52. One who may be both a sister and an only child?

53. First Hebrew letter

54. Desertlike

55. Unit in some suburban real-estate listings

56. Traction aid on a soccer shoe

57. “___ love, not war” (political slogan of the sixties)

58. ___ seeds (healthy addition to some smoothies)

59. Parts of an analog clock

60. Tater

61. Three-___ sloth

All Answers

Down

1. Clutch firmly

2. Edmonton N.H.L. player

3. U.S. military branch with the motto “Semper Supra” (“Always Above”)

4. Female quail

5. Gary of “Apollo 13”

6. Love dearly

7. Arranges by color, say

8. Defeat, as a dragon

10. Seafood sandwich with Connecticut and Maine varieties

11. Provo's state

12. Post-it, e.g.

13. Half of 31-Down

21. Create a romantic mood, in a way

22. View as

24. Bedding layer that might be waterproof

27. Fine spray

28. Inclement-weather garment that’s sometimes clear

29. Site with custom crafts

30. Fuddy-duddy quintet?

31. Six, in Seville

32. You __ be serious

33. Oscar winner who played Meryl Streep’s mother in “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”

34. Sprinted

39. Posting in a bistro window

42. Did a sheepdog's job

44. Wristlet handle

45. A three-line poem: / five syllables in line one, / then seven, then five

46. Marie who co-discovered two radioactive elements

47. Work, as dough

48. Composer Johann Sebastian __

49. “It was ___ big misunderstanding!”

50. Observed

51. Pet-food brand with a paw print in its logo

55. Talent show performance

All Answers