You’re staring at a grid. It’s Monday, or maybe a brutal Saturday, and you’ve got five blank squares staring back at you. The prompt is simple: meet with crossword clue. You think you know English. You’ve had meetings, you’ve met friends for coffee, and you’ve definitely encountered people on the street. But in the world of the New York Times or the LA Times crossword, "meet" isn't always a handshake.
Crossword puzzles are basically a game of linguistic gymnastics. They rely on the fact that English is a messy, beautiful disaster of a language where one word can mean fourteen different things depending on how much coffee the editor had that morning. When you see "meet with," your brain probably goes straight to a boardroom or a date. Wrong. Crossword constructors love the double meaning, the archaic usage, and the sneaky synonym that fits just perfectly into a tight corner of the grid.
The Most Likely Culprits for Meet With Crossword Clue
If you're stuck right now, let’s get to the point. Most of the time, the answer is INCUR. Think about it. When you "meet with" resistance or you "meet with" an accident, you are incurring something. It’s a formal, slightly cold way of saying you experienced a specific outcome.
But wait.
Sometimes the answer is SEE. This happens constantly in three-letter slots. "I'll see you at five" is the same as "I'll meet you at five." It's so simple it's actually infuriating when you've been overthinking it for ten minutes. Then there’s FACE. If you meet with an opponent, you face them. If you meet with a challenge, you face it. The nuance matters because the grid layout—those intersecting downs and acrosses—dictates which version of "meet" the constructor is forcing you to use.
Honestly, the word "meet" is a chameleon. You've got to look at the tense. Is it "met with"? Then you're looking at FACED or INCURRED. Is it "meets with"? Maybe SEES or JOINTS (if we're talking about carpentry, which crosswords love to do just to be difficult).
Why Crossword Constructors Love This Clue
Will Shortz and other editors like Joel Fagliano or Patti Varol aren't just trying to fill space. They use clues like meet with crossword clue because they serve as "pivot" points. These are words that can be verbs or nouns.
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Take the word SATISFY.
You might not think of "satisfy" as a synonym for "meet," but if you "meet the requirements," you "satisfy" them. This is the "Aha!" moment that makes crosswords addictive. It’s not about knowing trivia; it’s about shifting your perspective until the lock clicks. You’re not just looking for a word; you’re looking for a specific usage that matches the letter count.
Crosswords often use "Meet with" to lead you toward:
- SEE (3 letters): The most common short answer.
- FACE (4 letters): Used for confrontations or challenges.
- INCUR (5 letters): Usually paired with "unpleasantness" or "debt."
- GREET (5 letters): The more social, friendly version of the encounter.
- CONFER (6 letters): When the meeting involves a lot of talking and very little doing.
- SATISFY (7 letters): Meeting a standard or a quota.
The Subtle Art of the "Crosswordese" Trap
There is a specific dialect of English that only exists within the 15x15 squares of a Sunday puzzle. We call it Crosswordese. In this world, "meet with" might lead you to OPORTO (not really, but you get the point—strange words appear). More realistically, you might run into ADJOIN. If two things "meet with" each other, like pieces of a puzzle or borders of a country, they adjoin.
You also have to consider the "with" part of the clue. Sometimes, the "with" is part of the definition, and sometimes it's a hint that the answer is a phrasal verb. If the clue is "Meet with success," the answer might be WIN or PROSPER. If the clue is "Meet with by chance," you're looking at RUN INTO or BUMP.
The length of the word is your best friend. A three-letter word for "Meet with" is almost always SEE. A five-letter word is usually INCUR or GREET. If you see a six-letter space, start thinking about GATHER or COLLECT.
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Don't Let the Punctuation Fool You
If there is a question mark at the end of the clue—Meet with?—all bets are off. That question mark is the constructor's way of saying, "I'm lying to you, but in a fun way." It usually indicates a pun.
Maybe the answer is BUTT. Like, goats "meet with" their heads. Or maybe it’s MATE, as in a chess match where the king "meets" his end. The question mark is a signal to stop looking for synonyms and start looking for jokes.
Kinda makes you want to throw the pen across the room, doesn't it?
Actually, that's the whole point. The frustration of the meet with crossword clue is what makes the solve so satisfying. When you finally realize the clue wasn't asking about a business meeting but was actually asking about how two rivers combine (the answer would be CONVERGE, by the way), you feel like a genius.
Nuance in Modern Puzzles
In 2026, we're seeing a shift in how these clues are written. Editors are leaning more into conversational English and less into dictionary definitions from the 1950s. You might see "Meet with" clued through a social media lens, like DMED or LINKED.
If you're playing a modern indie puzzle from a site like AVC Club or A-Frame Games, "meet with" could even refer to a ZOOM or a TEAMS call. The context of the surrounding clues—the "vibes" of the puzzle—will tell you if the constructor is old-school or Gen Z.
How to Solve This Clue Every Time
There isn't one single answer, but there is a process. Honestly, most people just guess until something fits. But if you want to be methodical about it, follow these steps:
- Count the squares first. If it’s 3, try SEE. If it’s 5, try INCUR.
- Check the tense. If the clue is "Met with," the answer must end in -ED or be an irregular past tense like RAN INTO.
- Look for "filler" words. If the clue is "Meet with informally," it’s probably HANG.
- Examine the cross-references. If the "D" in a down clue is definitely right, and it’s the third letter of your across clue, you might be looking at ADJOIN.
- Think of the object. What are you meeting? If it's a person, try GREET. If it's a disaster, try INCUR. If it's a requirement, try FILL or MEET itself (though they rarely use the word in the answer).
Final Insights for the Grid
Crosswords are a test of how many different "files" you can open in your brain at once. The meet with crossword clue is a classic because it forces you to toggle between social, legal, physical, and metaphorical meanings.
Next time you’re stuck, stop thinking about people. Think about objects, laws, and physical spaces. Often, the most "human" sounding clues have the most "mechanical" answers.
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To master this specific clue, start keeping a mental list of "multi-tool" words. These are words like SEE, INCUR, FACE, and GREET. These four words cover about 80% of all instances where this clue appears. If none of those work, look for the trick—is it a pun? Is it about carpentry? Is it about two lines on a graph?
Stay flexible. The grid doesn't care about what you think the word should mean; it only cares about what fits.
Pro Tip: If you're really hitting a wall, step away for five minutes. Your brain continues to process the wordplay in the background. When you come back, the "hidden" meaning of meet with—like ENCOUNTER or REACH—often jumps out at you before you even sit back down.
Now, go back to your puzzle. If the word is five letters and starts with an I, just type in INCUR. You can thank me later.
Actionable Next Steps
- Analyze the letter count: Immediately categorize the clue by length (3=SEE, 4=FACE, 5=INCUR/GREET).
- Verify the part of speech: Ensure your answer matches the tense (past/present) of the clue.
- Scan the intersections: Use the "Down" clues to confirm the vowels, which are usually the most flexible parts of these synonyms.
- Build a "Cheat Sheet": Keep a digital note of common "Crosswordese" synonyms for frequent clues to speed up your Monday-Wednesday solve times.