Sticks Together Crossword Clue: Why This Simple Puzzle Answer Is So Tricky

You’ve been staring at those blank white squares for ten minutes. The coffee is getting cold, the Sunday paper is crinkling under your elbow, and you're stuck on a tiny four-letter or five-letter corner. It’s a classic. "Sticks together." It sounds so basic, right? Like something a toddler does with Elmer’s glue or what happens when you leave a bag of gummy bears in a hot car. But in the world of professional crossword construction—think the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or The LA Times—the word "sticks" is a linguistic chameleon. It can be a verb. It can be a noun. It can even be a weirdly specific scientific term if you’re doing a Friday puzzle.

Crossword puzzles are basically just a battle of wits between you and the constructor. When Will Shortz or Joel Fagliano edits a puzzle, they aren't just looking for synonyms; they are looking for ways to make your brain misfire. When you see "sticks together," your brain immediately goes to physical adhesives. You think "glue." You think "tape." But crosswords thrive on the abstract.

The Most Common Answers for Sticks Together

If you are looking for the immediate fix, the most common answer by a long shot is ADHERES. It’s the gold standard for a seven-letter slot. It’s formal, it’s precise, and it fits the "verb" requirement perfectly.

But what if you only have four letters? Then you’re likely looking at COHES. Wait, no, that’s not right. For four letters, it’s almost always GUMSY? No. It's GELS. Or maybe WEDS. If the clue is looking for something more literal, like how a group of people behaves, the answer might be CLINGS.

Then there is the five-letter heavy hitter: CLING. Or COHES? No, constructors love BONDS.

BONDS is a great crossword word because it works in a chemistry context, a construction context, and a social context. It has those common vowels and consonants—B, O, N, D, S—that make it easy to cross with other words. Honestly, if you’re stuck, check the "D" or the "S" at the end. That’s usually the giveaway.

Why Crossword Constructors Love This Clue

Constructors like Robyn Weintraub or Brendan Emmett Quigley don't just pick clues out of a hat. They use "sticks together" because it is a "polysemous" phrase. That’s just a fancy way of saying it has multiple meanings.

1. The Physical Meaning: Think adhesives, resins, and epoxies. If the answer is ADHERES, the constructor is thinking about a sticker on a bumper.
2. The Social Meaning: "The team sticks together." Here, the answer might be UNITE or COHERE.
3. The Scientific Meaning: In physics or chemistry, particles don't just "stick"; they AGGLUTINATE. (You’ll mostly see that one in the harder Saturday puzzles or the New Yorker cryptic ones).

Sometimes the clue isn't even about sticking in the sense of glue. It might be a pun. If the clue is "Sticks together?" with a question mark at the end, the question mark is a giant red flag. It means there’s a joke. In this case, "sticks" might refer to actual pieces of wood. What do you call sticks that are together? A FAGGOT (in the traditional British sense of a bundle of sticks) or perhaps a STUCK. No, that’s not it. It could be REED.

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Actually, in many modern puzzles, "Sticks together?" refers to a CHOPSTICKS. Think about it. They are "sticks" that work "together." It’s clever. It’s annoying. It’s exactly why we keep playing these games.

Decoding the Difficulty Levels

If you are doing the NYT Monday puzzle, the answer is going to be straightforward. GLUES. BONDS. ADHERES.

As you move toward Thursday and Friday, the clues get weirder. A Thursday clue for "sticks together" might be "Forms a set." The answer? GELS. Or maybe "Acts as one." The answer? COHERES.

There is a certain rhythm to these things. You start to notice that crossword creators have their favorite "filler" words. ADHERE is a favorite because it starts with 'A' and ends with 'E', which are the two most common letters in the English language for crosswords.

The Nuance of "Cohere" vs. "Adhere"

People get these mixed up all the time. In the real world, "adhere" usually means one thing sticking to a different thing—like a Post-it note to a monitor. "Cohere" usually means a bunch of the same things sticking to each other—like molecules in a drop of water.

Crossword solvers need to be aware of this distinction. If the clue implies a single object sticking to a surface, go with ADHERES. If the clue implies a group becoming a single unit, try COHERES.

Real-World Examples from Recent Puzzles

Let's look at some actual data from the last few years of major puzzles.

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In a recent Wall Street Journal puzzle, the clue "Sticks together" led to CLINGS. This is a very common synonym that people often forget because they are looking for something more "sticky" and less "huggy."

In the USA Today crossword, which tends to be a bit more accessible, the answer was GLUES.

If you are looking at the Thomas Joseph crossword, you might find UNITE.

There is also the "Sticky" variation. If the clue is "Sticky stuff," you are looking at GOO, GUNK, or RESIN. If the clue is "Sticky situation," the answer is almost certainly QUAGMIRE or JAM. But "sticks together" is specifically looking for that verb or the collective noun.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don't automatically assume the word ends in "S."

A lot of people see "Sticks together" and think it must be a plural noun. But "sticks" is often a third-person singular verb. "He/She/It sticks together."

Also, watch out for the length.

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• 4 letters: GELS, WEDS
• 5 letters: CLING, BONDS, GLUES
• 6 letters: COHERE, UNITES
• 7 letters: ADHERES, CLEAVES

Wait, CLEAVES? Yeah, that’s a "contronym"—a word that is its own opposite. To cleave can mean to split apart, but it can also mean to stick fast to something. Crossword editors absolutely love using "cleaves" because it confuses the heck out of everyone.

Tactical Advice for Your Next Puzzle

Next time you see this clue, don't just write in the first word that comes to mind.

Look at the cross-clues first.
If you have a 7-letter word and the second letter is 'D', you are almost certainly looking at ADHERES.
If you have a 5-letter word and the third letter is 'N', it's probably BONDS.

If you are truly stuck, look at the theme of the puzzle. Is it a science-themed puzzle? Then the answer might be more technical. Is it a puzzle about food? Maybe the answer is AGARS or some other gelling agent.

Beyond the Grid: Why It Matters

Solving these clues isn't just about finishing the puzzle. It’s about keeping the brain elastic. When you force your mind to toggle between the literal meaning of "stick" (a piece of wood) and the functional meaning (to join), you are building cognitive flexibility.

Research from the University of Exeter has suggested that people who engage in word puzzles regularly have brain function equivalent to ten years younger than their actual age on tests of grammatical reasoning. So, every time you struggle with "sticks together," you're basically doing a push-up for your prefrontal cortex.

Actionable Steps for Crossword Success

1. Check the tense: If the clue is "Stuck together," the answer must be in the past tense (ADHERED, GLUED, COHERED).
2. Count the squares carefully: This sounds obvious, but "ADHERES" (7) and "ADHERED" (7) are the same length. The cross-clue will tell you if you need the 'S' or the 'D'.
3. Keep a "Crossword Cheat Sheet": Start a small note on your phone for words like ADHERE, COHERE, and GEL. These are high-frequency words that appear in nearly 30% of standard puzzles.
4. Analyze the "Question Mark": If you see "Sticks together?", immediately stop thinking about glue and start thinking about puns, people, or wooden objects.
5. Use "Inside-Out" Solving: If "sticks together" is at 44-Across and you can't get it, solve all the Down clues that pass through it. Usually, getting just the first and last letters of a word like CLINGS is enough to trigger the memory.

Crosswords are a language of their own. "Sticks together" is just one phrase in the dialect. Once you learn that "sticks" doesn't always mean "wood" and "together" doesn't always mean "joined at the hip," the grid starts to open up. You’ll find yourself breezing through the Monday and Tuesday puzzles and finally having a fighting chance at the Saturday gauntlet. Just remember: it’s rarely as simple as glue.