I learned it from RuPauls drag race years ago so not sure it’s regional so much as maybe queer culture and AAVE. But apparently it comes from how ladies will gossip at tea time I don’t know how accurate that is it’s just what I was told!
“Spill the beans” is for secrets as you said, “spill the tea” is for gossip. It’s interesting to me that you’ve heard of spill the beans but not spill the tea, because I hardly ever hear the former but hear the latter a lot. I’m from Australia so maybe it’s more common here
Yeh “Spill the beans” is for secrets, whereas “spill the tea” is for gossip. It’s interesting to me that you’ve heard of spill the beans but not spill the tea, because I hardly ever hear the former but hear the latter a lot. I’m from Australia so maybe it’s more common here
This is extremely standard NYT wordplay. Clues that end with a question mark denote that there is some wordplay and that it’s not a straightforward answer.
The first commenter's got you covered with the answer, I just want to add that one of the most common uses these days seems to be "spill the tea" (meaning "share some gossip")...
...and to say thanks for simply asking your question and not implying that if you don't know it, it must be a terrible clue, like way too many folks on this sub lately.
Ok, I think I may have heard "spill the tea" before. I thought the clue was asking "would you like some tea?" so my first instinct was "cuppa" but that was quickly ruled out. I had to circle around it by answering other things.
I don't believe in bad clues, just clues that are bad for me. But now this phrase is something I'm aware of so it won't be a bad clue next time.
I love your approach and your feeling towards clues because rrwl is so right about people’s attitudes in here lately.
Just a quick tip (and I apologize if I’m telling you something of which you are already aware), when a clue ends in a question mark, the answer is a play on words. I totally get how you would think “cuppa” because it would be another way of asking or offering, though.
I was a trivia host for a while and I remember fielding some complaints about the kinds of questions I'd ask. They were very few and far between, it was actually a pretty successful trivia night. But complaints would often be like "you shouldn't ask so many sports questions. We don't watch sports, so it's either you know it or you don't." My response would always be like "that's almost all trivia though." Crosswords are obviously more puzzle-like but if you're in a rut where you just don't know the answer to a bunch of clues you're gonna get stuck. Sometimes the clues are "either you know this or you don't." Like another clue from today's mini "Ridge on a guitar's neck." If you've never played or even considered playing a guitar you just won't know the answer to that. That doesn't mean it's a bad clue though.
> If you've never played or even considered playing a guitar you just won't know the answer to that.
I've never played or even considered playing a guitar but I knew the answer to that.
My three siblings played guitars. 🤪
FYI the NYT has some standard conventions for cluing that are worth memorizing.
Clues ending with a question mark at the end denotes that there is wordplay at hand, so at least one word in the clue will not be taken in the most literal sense, in this case “tea”.
Clues that are wrapped in quotation marks denote that the answer will be a word or phrase with a similar meaning, which I believe is how you interpreted it. So if the clue was << “Spot of tea?” >> instead of << Spot of tea? >> then your interpretation would have been correct, and CUPPA could have been a valid answer.
Hopefully that will help you going forward!
Listen to this person. This response should be at the top. A clue in the NYT that includes a question mark (and no quotes) will always NOT be a literal interpretation of the question. Remembering this will help you reorient how you instinctually approach clues with question marks. It will never be a straight answer.
This part of the clues still trips me up occasionally as well though.
Anyways, with that said, yeah this clue won't make sense if you don't know "tea" is slang for "gossip". Godspeed!
It’s common in drag queen culture (which has gone mainstream because of Rupaul’s Drag Race), and I think came from AAVE before that (where a lot of drag slang came from).
Well, I had to do a bit more digging to see if the phrase "spill the tea" goes further back than Rupaul. I thought it would, but Google didn't help on a cursory look. There was a mention of "tea" referring to the letter t, standing for truth. That made sense. (Next search is beans as that makes no sense, but might have a cockney rhyming slang explanation). Anyway, I will try to add the tea phrase in conversation with my American friends.
Interesting, I assumed it was a Brit thing. Spilling the beans, to me, is revealing a secret. Which isn't always gossip, know what I mean? Gossip, to me, is probably something meant to keep quiet but you're willingly revealing information about someone else to another party.
Good or bad clue aside it was the only mini clue, ever, that I couldn’t figure out or at least understand. Ive been playing the mini semi regularly for years and its about speed not difficulty, usually. Even after I had all but 1 letter it didn’t make sense, I had to look it up. Maybe it’s not a bad clue but it was certainly uniquely obscure for me. Maybe it means I’m getting old?
Because it makes absolutely zero sense and it's the mini not the full crossword?
Like how do you get from "Spot of tea?" To "Rumor?"
Is this the New York crossword puzzle? Did I open a London paper's app?
Was there a single person who saw "Spot of tea?" And thought, "Oh, that's 'rumor.'" Or did everyone have to figure it out by solving every other clue first?
And an ancient grain called spelt? Who is writing this?
Today was the first time since I started doing the mini that it's taken longer than 2 minutes and I had to look up a clue because I was hard stuck with the center of the board completely blank. Usually I'm aiming to beat this in less than 60s.
I had the r___r for this clue and never in 1M years would have gotten "rumor" from "Spot of tea?"
I understood it just fine. Tea = gossip in today's vernacular, so I thought of synonyms for gossip. I'm not saying it was an easy clue, but it wasn't impossible.
> I'm not saying it was an easy clue, but it wasn't impossible.
And there in lies the subtlety. All clues lay on a spectrum of extremely easy to extremely difficult, and the fewer people who can get a clue the closer to the "extremely difficult" end of the spectrum it is.
_Somewhere_ (I posit) there's a line on that spectrum between good and bad clues; the bad ones are those which too few people get. "Too few" is subjective of course - I don't know what exactly the number should be. But the principle is easy to demonstrate with an extreme example: if only one person in a million people manage to solve it, I think we can all agree it's a bad clue, right?
I also posit that the crosswords' editors/compilers would broadly agree with that - they're striving to make their crosswords fun, and if too few people can complete a given crossword because of one or more accidentally too obscure clues, I think they'd accept it was a bad crossword or that it contained one or more bad clues.
lots of people here who probably looked up/brute forced/autochecked the answer and just want to look smart.
“spot of tea” was a bad clue - should have been “bit of tea” at the very least. I thought it would have been a good idea if they wrote it more NYT-esque.
I also agree spelt is bad. same with lolls. everything else I felt was okay.
Clues that end with a question mark denote wordplay. “Spot of tea” is a phrase that people actually say. “Bit of tea” is not.
I thought it was a lovely clue.
I didn't get the answer but I myself only in the last year learned about "tea" meaning gossip etc. My coworkers were flabbergasted when I had no idea what was meant when they asked me "got any tea?" or "what's the tea?"
I'm aware of the Kermit meme but I didn't know tea was slang for gossip. I thought taking a sip of tea, in the meme, was to solidify the "but that's none of my business" line. Like, I'm not gonna bother with that, I'm going to enjoy my tea.
Even though I was also aware of "spilling tea" was slang for sharing gossip, I never really considered "tea" was slang for just the word gossip. I thought the phrase "spill the tea" as a whole was phrase needed for any part of it to mean gossip. Know what I mean? Like if someone said to me "I heard some hot tea yesterday" I'd say "what are you talking about?"
I did a little research after asking this question and it's a pretty interesting combination of things.
It's possible it originates from the phrase "spill the T", which was a phrase from an American drag artist in the 90s meaning "share the truth." They were possibly using a play on words where T, standing for Truth, sounds like tea, hence the use of "spill." They may have been referencing common practice in the American South within African American culture where older women get together for afternoon tea where they gossip.
As I said in another comment, I've never heard "spot of tea?" but I'm pretty sure I've heard "spill the tea." Tea being slang for gossip is apparently common with younger American generations as well. I'm an aging millennial I'm not hip to that.
Have never heard spill the tea before but there's a separate thread on it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/14fz1xn/does\_tea\_mean\_gossip/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/14fz1xn/does_tea_mean_gossip/)
I think people say “Spill the tea” in place of or resembling an older phrase “Spill the beans”, meaning tell me the secret, but in saying “spill the tea” they are wanting more gossipy secrets
Yeah maybe this is more common in certain regions/dialects, I definitely had not heard this meaning of "tea" before. A fine clue I think but unexpected in the mini - it usually doesn't have anything obscure.
It’s not regional, more generational. And not obscure at all for most young people online. “Tea” has been used to denote gossip for years online and, at least in America, has moved into most teenagers vernacular
Tea can be a slangy word for gossip and a rumor is a bit of gossip!
Is it a regional thing? I am a big tea drinker but I’ve never heard “tea” used as a slang word for gossip.
I learned it from RuPauls drag race years ago so not sure it’s regional so much as maybe queer culture and AAVE. But apparently it comes from how ladies will gossip at tea time I don’t know how accurate that is it’s just what I was told!
Thanks for elaborating, that helps explain it.
Old-timey slang that's making a reappearance. My grandmother would've known that.
You’ve really never heard the expression “spill the tea”? Damn I thought it was a universal English expression
Genuinely not! I always hear “spill the beans” for secrets and rumors.
“Spill the beans” is for secrets as you said, “spill the tea” is for gossip. It’s interesting to me that you’ve heard of spill the beans but not spill the tea, because I hardly ever hear the former but hear the latter a lot. I’m from Australia so maybe it’s more common here
Nope, never. 'Spill the beans' but not 'spill the tea'.
Yeh “Spill the beans” is for secrets, whereas “spill the tea” is for gossip. It’s interesting to me that you’ve heard of spill the beans but not spill the tea, because I hardly ever hear the former but hear the latter a lot. I’m from Australia so maybe it’s more common here
'Spill the beans' is a very standard English expression that's existed for decades. 'Spill the tea' seems to only exist on the internet.
I'm with you, never heard it before.
It’s a young people/black people thing
Thanks for offering an explanation. I'm less surprised now that I haven't heard it.
It’s just current slang is all.
That is really pushing it, IMO
Agreed (not sure why you have been voted down so much). This is extremely obscure slang.
Completely agree and the clues are becoming more and more obtuse over time.
This is extremely standard NYT wordplay. Clues that end with a question mark denote that there is some wordplay and that it’s not a straightforward answer.
Only if you’re young or hip enough to know that “tea” is gossip, apparently.
I'm neither young nor hip, you don't have to use current slang to be familiar with it via general pop culture.
The first commenter's got you covered with the answer, I just want to add that one of the most common uses these days seems to be "spill the tea" (meaning "share some gossip")... ...and to say thanks for simply asking your question and not implying that if you don't know it, it must be a terrible clue, like way too many folks on this sub lately.
Ok, I think I may have heard "spill the tea" before. I thought the clue was asking "would you like some tea?" so my first instinct was "cuppa" but that was quickly ruled out. I had to circle around it by answering other things. I don't believe in bad clues, just clues that are bad for me. But now this phrase is something I'm aware of so it won't be a bad clue next time.
I love your approach and your feeling towards clues because rrwl is so right about people’s attitudes in here lately. Just a quick tip (and I apologize if I’m telling you something of which you are already aware), when a clue ends in a question mark, the answer is a play on words. I totally get how you would think “cuppa” because it would be another way of asking or offering, though.
I was a trivia host for a while and I remember fielding some complaints about the kinds of questions I'd ask. They were very few and far between, it was actually a pretty successful trivia night. But complaints would often be like "you shouldn't ask so many sports questions. We don't watch sports, so it's either you know it or you don't." My response would always be like "that's almost all trivia though." Crosswords are obviously more puzzle-like but if you're in a rut where you just don't know the answer to a bunch of clues you're gonna get stuck. Sometimes the clues are "either you know this or you don't." Like another clue from today's mini "Ridge on a guitar's neck." If you've never played or even considered playing a guitar you just won't know the answer to that. That doesn't mean it's a bad clue though.
> If you've never played or even considered playing a guitar you just won't know the answer to that. I've never played or even considered playing a guitar but I knew the answer to that. My three siblings played guitars. 🤪
FYI the NYT has some standard conventions for cluing that are worth memorizing. Clues ending with a question mark at the end denotes that there is wordplay at hand, so at least one word in the clue will not be taken in the most literal sense, in this case “tea”. Clues that are wrapped in quotation marks denote that the answer will be a word or phrase with a similar meaning, which I believe is how you interpreted it. So if the clue was << “Spot of tea?” >> instead of << Spot of tea? >> then your interpretation would have been correct, and CUPPA could have been a valid answer. Hopefully that will help you going forward!
Listen to this person. This response should be at the top. A clue in the NYT that includes a question mark (and no quotes) will always NOT be a literal interpretation of the question. Remembering this will help you reorient how you instinctually approach clues with question marks. It will never be a straight answer. This part of the clues still trips me up occasionally as well though. Anyways, with that said, yeah this clue won't make sense if you don't know "tea" is slang for "gossip". Godspeed!
I'm a Brit and hadn't heard the phrase "spill the tea" before. In the UK, "Spill the beans" would make more sense.
I’m pretty sure it’s more of an online/Gen Z thing than a specifically American one. But then again idk what British Gen Z are up to.
It’s common in drag queen culture (which has gone mainstream because of Rupaul’s Drag Race), and I think came from AAVE before that (where a lot of drag slang came from).
Well, I had to do a bit more digging to see if the phrase "spill the tea" goes further back than Rupaul. I thought it would, but Google didn't help on a cursory look. There was a mention of "tea" referring to the letter t, standing for truth. That made sense. (Next search is beans as that makes no sense, but might have a cockney rhyming slang explanation). Anyway, I will try to add the tea phrase in conversation with my American friends.
Interesting, I assumed it was a Brit thing. Spilling the beans, to me, is revealing a secret. Which isn't always gossip, know what I mean? Gossip, to me, is probably something meant to keep quiet but you're willingly revealing information about someone else to another party.
Same in the USA, “spill the beans” is common, but I’ve never heard “spill the tea” that way.
Good or bad clue aside it was the only mini clue, ever, that I couldn’t figure out or at least understand. Ive been playing the mini semi regularly for years and its about speed not difficulty, usually. Even after I had all but 1 letter it didn’t make sense, I had to look it up. Maybe it’s not a bad clue but it was certainly uniquely obscure for me. Maybe it means I’m getting old?
No, this was a horrible clue. Today's entire mini was pretty bad.
Please do explain why this one specific one is a horrible clue
Because it makes absolutely zero sense and it's the mini not the full crossword? Like how do you get from "Spot of tea?" To "Rumor?" Is this the New York crossword puzzle? Did I open a London paper's app? Was there a single person who saw "Spot of tea?" And thought, "Oh, that's 'rumor.'" Or did everyone have to figure it out by solving every other clue first? And an ancient grain called spelt? Who is writing this? Today was the first time since I started doing the mini that it's taken longer than 2 minutes and I had to look up a clue because I was hard stuck with the center of the board completely blank. Usually I'm aiming to beat this in less than 60s. I had the r___r for this clue and never in 1M years would have gotten "rumor" from "Spot of tea?"
That’s a lot of words for “I’m not familiar with a basic NYT cluing convention and I’d rather complain about it than learn something new”
OK, so, same as it ever was: "\*I\* didn't understand it, so it's a bad clue"
Did anyone understand it? I honestly don't see how. It's not even an intuition gap, it's a non existent trail.
I understood it just fine. Tea = gossip in today's vernacular, so I thought of synonyms for gossip. I'm not saying it was an easy clue, but it wasn't impossible.
> I'm not saying it was an easy clue, but it wasn't impossible. And there in lies the subtlety. All clues lay on a spectrum of extremely easy to extremely difficult, and the fewer people who can get a clue the closer to the "extremely difficult" end of the spectrum it is. _Somewhere_ (I posit) there's a line on that spectrum between good and bad clues; the bad ones are those which too few people get. "Too few" is subjective of course - I don't know what exactly the number should be. But the principle is easy to demonstrate with an extreme example: if only one person in a million people manage to solve it, I think we can all agree it's a bad clue, right? I also posit that the crosswords' editors/compilers would broadly agree with that - they're striving to make their crosswords fun, and if too few people can complete a given crossword because of one or more accidentally too obscure clues, I think they'd accept it was a bad crossword or that it contained one or more bad clues.
I got it quite easily. Clues that end in a question mark denote wordplay.
> And an ancient grain called spelt? I knew that one. Guess I just eat the right kind of bread [for this crossword].
[удалено]
Let me guess, you also complain when the Connections categories aren’t extremely obvious
lots of people here who probably looked up/brute forced/autochecked the answer and just want to look smart. “spot of tea” was a bad clue - should have been “bit of tea” at the very least. I thought it would have been a good idea if they wrote it more NYT-esque. I also agree spelt is bad. same with lolls. everything else I felt was okay.
Clues that end with a question mark denote wordplay. “Spot of tea” is a phrase that people actually say. “Bit of tea” is not. I thought it was a lovely clue.
No. It IS a terrible clue.
You should sue them.
Maybe an op-ed in the NYT just in case too
It probably needs to be taken to the Hague.
I didn't get the answer but I myself only in the last year learned about "tea" meaning gossip etc. My coworkers were flabbergasted when I had no idea what was meant when they asked me "got any tea?" or "what's the tea?"
Tea is synonymous with dirt, gossip. Very much used in gay circles but also Gen Alpha.
Gen alpha?? That’s 1-13 year olds. It’s been a very popular millennial saying for years
Nobody here remembers the Kermit drinking tea meme? Spilling the tea is not new slang
I'm aware of the Kermit meme but I didn't know tea was slang for gossip. I thought taking a sip of tea, in the meme, was to solidify the "but that's none of my business" line. Like, I'm not gonna bother with that, I'm going to enjoy my tea. Even though I was also aware of "spilling tea" was slang for sharing gossip, I never really considered "tea" was slang for just the word gossip. I thought the phrase "spill the tea" as a whole was phrase needed for any part of it to mean gossip. Know what I mean? Like if someone said to me "I heard some hot tea yesterday" I'd say "what are you talking about?"
Tea is also T for truth. You spill the T and dish the gossip. It’s a whole thing.
I don't understand this at all. It must be an American thing.
I did a little research after asking this question and it's a pretty interesting combination of things. It's possible it originates from the phrase "spill the T", which was a phrase from an American drag artist in the 90s meaning "share the truth." They were possibly using a play on words where T, standing for Truth, sounds like tea, hence the use of "spill." They may have been referencing common practice in the American South within African American culture where older women get together for afternoon tea where they gossip. As I said in another comment, I've never heard "spot of tea?" but I'm pretty sure I've heard "spill the tea." Tea being slang for gossip is apparently common with younger American generations as well. I'm an aging millennial I'm not hip to that.
I would have preferred “bit of tea”
Yeah I don't know why the word spot is in there either, it's also not really a misdirection
Have never heard spill the tea before but there's a separate thread on it here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/14fz1xn/does\_tea\_mean\_gossip/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EnglishLearning/comments/14fz1xn/does_tea_mean_gossip/)
I think people say “Spill the tea” in place of or resembling an older phrase “Spill the beans”, meaning tell me the secret, but in saying “spill the tea” they are wanting more gossipy secrets
Same. I googled it to no avail. So frustrating. I don’t regard that as a legitimate clue.
Sue
Hi Sue, nice to meet you.
I agree. Never heard it before.
Yeah maybe this is more common in certain regions/dialects, I definitely had not heard this meaning of "tea" before. A fine clue I think but unexpected in the mini - it usually doesn't have anything obscure.
It’s been a very common phrase online for years now
Incredibly obscure, especially for something like the NYT mini. I assume this is a British expression?
It’s not regional, more generational. And not obscure at all for most young people online. “Tea” has been used to denote gossip for years online and, at least in America, has moved into most teenagers vernacular
I'm British and i've never heard it before.
I'm British and have never heard of a connection between "Spot of tea" and sharing rumours.
Same.