You’re staring at your phone or the folded paper on your lap. Three letters. Maybe four or five depending on the day of the week. You’ve got the "S" at the end, and you’re thinking, "Okay, medical stuff, sores? Scars? Wounds?" Then it hits you. It’s SORES. Or maybe CYSTS. Or even ADRIFT if the clue was wordplay you totally missed.
Solving the lesions NYT crossword clue isn't just about knowing your anatomy. It’s about understanding the specific, sometimes frustratingly clever mind of a New York Times puzzle constructor like Joel Fagliano or Sam Ezersky. They don’t want to give it to you easy. Crosswords are a game of synonyms, but they’re also a game of vibes.
The Most Common Answers for Lesions
Crossword puzzles have a "house style." If you see the word "lesion," your brain probably goes to a doctor’s office, but the puzzle usually wants something punchier.
SORES is the heavy hitter here. It’s four letters. It’s common. It fits into those tight corners of a Tuesday grid where the constructor is trying to link a theme about "Eye Sores" or something equally punny.
Then you have ADENOMAS. This one is for the Saturday solvers. It’s long, it’s technical, and it’s a specific type of benign tumor. If the clue mentions "glandular," you’re looking for this.
CYSTS pops up a lot too. Five letters. High frequency of consonants. It’s a favorite for constructors because that "Y" can be a real pain to cross with a vertical word, unless that vertical word is "YOGA" or "YELP."
Why Crossword Language Feels So Weird
Have you ever noticed how nobody in real life uses the words "ERNE" or "ETUI" anymore? Crosswordese is a dialect. When the NYT uses "lesions" as a clue, they are often looking for ACNE if the context is about teenagers, or WELDS if the clue is a devious bit of misdirection regarding metalwork.
📖 Related: Isaiah Washington Movies and Shows: Why the Star Still Matters
Wait, metalwork? Yeah. Sometimes a lesion isn't a biological thing. If the clue is "Surface lesions?" and the answer is SCARS, that’s straightforward. But if the clue is "Structural lesions," they might be talking about something that has been damaged and repaired. You have to be suspicious.
Crossword construction is basically an arms race between the person writing the clue and your ability to think laterally. A lesion is technically any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism. That is a massive definition. It could be a POCK, a WOUND, or an ULCER.
The Medical Accuracy vs. Crossword Logic
Let’s get nerdy for a second. In the clinical world—think The Lancet or a Mayo Clinic pamphlet—a lesion is a broad term. It includes everything from a freckle to a stroke-damaged area of the brain.
But the New York Times isn’t a medical journal.
They use "lesion" because it has a specific letter count that helps them bridge gaps. Honestly, the word is a "glue" word. If a constructor has a great long-form answer like STAYCATION but they need a short word to finish the corner, and they have "S_R_S," they’re going to use SORES.
Historical Patterns in the NYT Archives
Looking back through the Shortz era (1993 to now), the word "lesion" has appeared as a clue hundreds of times.
👉 See also: Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett: Why Fans Are Still Divided Over the Daimyo of Tatooine
- Three Letters: TIC (rare, usually a stretch)
- Four Letters: SORE, SCAR, POCK
- Five Letters: SORES, CYSTS, BOILS
- Six Letters: ULCERS, WOUNDS
If you’re stuck, look at the suffix. Is the clue "Lesions" (plural) or "Lesion" (singular)? If it's plural, you’re almost certainly looking for a word ending in S. But watch out for ACNE. Acne is a collective noun in crossword land. It describes a group of lesions, but it doesn't need an S at the end to be the answer to a plural clue sometimes, though purists will argue about that in the forums.
Breaking the Mental Block
When you’re staring at that blank white square and the lesions NYT crossword clue is staring back, stop thinking about medicine.
Start thinking about letters.
Crosswords are math disguised as literature. If you have the second letter and it’s an "O," it’s SORES or BOILS. If the third letter is a "C," it’s POCK.
Sometimes the clue is "Brain lesions." This is usually SCLEROSIS or something equally beefy for a Sunday puzzle. But most of the time, the NYT wants the simplest version of the word. They want the word your grandma would use to describe a scraped knee.
Is It "Sores" or "Wounds"?
This is the classic crossword dilemma. Both are five letters. Both mean roughly the same thing.
✨ Don't miss: Why Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Actors Still Define the Modern Spy Thriller
Look at the crossing words. If the vertical word starts with a "W," it’s WOUNDS. If it starts with an "S," it’s SORES. If you don't have any crosses yet, leave it blank. Seriously. One of the biggest mistakes people make is committing to a word and then trying to force the rest of the grid to fit around a mistake.
Crosswords are about flexibility.
The Cruelest Variations
Every once in a while, the NYT gets fancy. They might clue it as "Lesion-related" (four letters). The answer? ALGI. Or maybe the clue is "Like some lesions" (seven letters). The answer could be KAPOSIS.
These are the ones that ruin your streak.
KAPOSIS refers to Kaposi sarcoma, which became a widely known term during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s. The NYT includes these because they are part of the cultural and medical lexicon, even if they’re grim. The puzzle is a reflection of the world, after all.
Pro-Tips for Daily Solvers
If you want to stop getting stuck on the lesions NYT crossword clue, you need to build a mental database.
- Check the Day: If it's Monday, the answer is SORES. If it's Saturday, the answer might be ADENOMA.
- Count the S: If the clue is plural, put an S in the last box immediately. It works 95% of the time.
- Think Outside the Skin: Remember that "lesion" can refer to plants (blight) or even figurative damage.
- Use XWord Info: If you are truly dying to know the history, sites like XWord Info track every single time a word has been used in the NYT. It’s a rabbit hole, but it’s a fun one.
Basically, don't let a medical term give you a headache. Crosswords aren't testing your PhD; they're testing your ability to guess what a guy in a coffee shop in Brooklyn thinks is a "common" word.
Actionable Next Steps for Success
The next time you encounter a medical clue that feels too broad, start by filling in the most common vowels (A, E, I, O, U) first. For "lesion," the letter O is your best friend because it anchors SORES, POCK, BOILS, and WOUND. If you can find the vowel, the consonants usually fall into place based on the crosses. Keep a list of "Crosswordese" in a notes app on your phone; words like ESNE, OLEO, and SORE are the structural pillars of almost every grid you’ll ever solve. Once you stop treating it like a biology test and start treating it like a pattern-matching game, you’ll start clearing the Monday-through-Wednesday puzzles in under ten minutes.