Final Bid - The New York Times

wordplay, the crossword column.

THURSDAY PUZZLE — In English, wordplay lovers can find a number of things to keep them entertained, but even then, there is always more to discover.

Tuffs’s fourth puzzle for The New York Times and he offers solvers an interesting tidbit that I believe I am seeing for the first time.

Even if English is your first language.

We’ve seen the entry MATHLETE before — this is the answer’s sixth appearance in the New York Times Crossword — but I think this is my favorite clue for it thus far.

(It’s most likely a reference to opera, because the answer is in a foreign language).

If you would like to try making your own, Tejal Rao has an excellent recipe in New York Times Cooking.

In this puzzle, the answer is ADIEU.

“Preceder of cuatro and chic?” is definitely a foreign language clue and, interestingly, it requires basic knowledge of both Spanish and French.

The answer is TRES, which means “three” in Spanish and “very” in French.

ROBIN, the “Boy Wonder” of the Batman franchise, makes his 11th appearance in the New York Times Crossword (since Will Shortz became crossword editor) with the misdirected clue “Bat boy?” According to Xwordinfo.com, his first appearance was in a crossword from 1966.

When certain two-word phrases in English are split and looked at individually, it turns out that the second word is the foreign language translation of the first.

In fact, there is a revealer at 62A that tells us as much: The answer to the clue “Like the second word in 17-, 24-, 37-/40-, 38- and 50-Across vis-à-vis the first word” is TRANSLATED.

Tuffs’s puzzle before I realized that the word SIN was the Spanish word for WITHOUT.

The New York Times Crossword has an open submission system, and you can submit your puzzles online.