NYT Sunday Crossword Error Causes First-Ever Unsolvable Puzzle

Justin Baldoni Sued by New York Times Over His $400 Million Defamation Case

The Sunday scaries recently took on new meaning for avid New York Times crossword solvers.

For the first time in the famed puzzle's 84-year history, a printing mistake rendered it impossible to solve.

The puzzle—created by Michael Lieberman and titled "Nuclear Fusion"—was published in the April 19 issue of the New York Times Magazine without a clue for 5-across.

"Sunday’s crossword puzzle in the print edition of The New York Times Magazine contains a grid that does not match the clues," the outlet cautioned on X (formerly Twitter) on April 18, before the magazine hit shelves. "The correct version of the puzzle can be found in the news section of Sunday’s print edition of The Times. The puzzle on our app is correct."

So, how did the wrong puzzle get included in the Sunday edition of the newspaper?

"After the issue had already been printed, we discovered that there was an error with the solvable grid," an editor's note published online April 18 read. "We sincerely apologize for the confusion."

But this wasn't the first time a flub made its way onto the NYT crossword pages. After all, Shortz wrote in a 2007 Word Play article that "sharp-eyed Times readers catch me in about a dozen mistakes a year."

"In my defense I should say that most of the errors are small, with few noticed by more than one or two people," he noted. "In about 10% of the mistakes, the references I've relied on have themselves been in error."

"As a whole the potential for goofs is vast. Each year the Times crossword contains about 32,000 clues and answers, most of which can go wrong in multiple ways," he added. "Still, a mistake is a mistake."