It goes on top

Latest answer — August 29, 2026

44 Down

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Clue explained

A SHIRT is a garment that goes on top of the torso, and it can also go on top of an undershirt or other clothing layer.

Clue type:
Definition
A shirt displayed on a clothing rack.

NYT Crossword

This clue's Saturday, August 29, 2026 appearance

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Or reveal one clue at a time with the Hint and Answer buttons below.

Across

  1. 1Main characters for an early reader
  2. 5They get rings for hoops
  3. 14Skin-care brand known for its pore strips
  4. 15Large restaurant vessel shaped like another vessel
  5. 16Conference handout
  6. 17Dubious sighting in the night sky
  7. 18Started to boil
  8. 20Work, as a joke
  9. 21Romance author Huang
  10. 22They might be rehabbed with knee flexion
  11. 23His #33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003
  12. 25Winner of the 2025 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, with "The"
  13. 26Personne canonisée: Abbr.
  14. 27___ Capital, investment firm co-founded by Mitt Romney
  15. 28Hits the mark, in a way
  16. 29Many people climb it
  17. 33Naturally concluded
  18. 35Ones giving a toast at an outdoor party?
  19. 37Court session, perhaps
  20. 39Like much of Libya
  21. 41Depicting the world bleakly and cynically
  22. 42Put your back into it
  23. 43"Sweet dreams are made of cheese / Who am I to dis a ___?" (parody lyrics)
  24. 44Is immersed
  25. 46Fair trade, say
  26. 47"It is not easy for a ___ to balance himself on a ladder": "Animal Farm"
  27. 48A word in closing
  28. 49Relative of house music
  29. 51Inverse of an exponential function
  30. 54Vikings' offense?
  31. 55What a supposed bug is often revealed to be
  32. 56Grant
  33. 57Deftly evades
  34. 58Come off as

Down

  1. 1Nonhuman provider of medical advice
  2. 2Neck topper
  3. 3Shoves (in)
  4. 4Sonic system
  5. 5Org. featured in 1998's "Enemy of the State"
  6. 6Breaking character?
  7. 7Like parts of Istanbul
  8. 8Common Chinese surname
  9. 9___ legs
  10. 10Stability aids, informally
  11. 11Soft, silky material
  12. 12Depicts stylishly
  13. 13Green day star, for short
  14. 14Humongous, slangily
  15. 19Stocked and sold, as goods
  16. 24August ___, "Fences" playwright
  17. 25Makes sense of
  18. 27Deliberately exasperated
  19. 28More sassy
  20. 30Indecisive way to end
  21. 31Gets by
  22. 32Binary, in a way
  23. 34Former
  24. 36"Wow ... what are the chances?!"
  25. 38Publisher of the front-page headline "This sport is stupid anyway" after a U.S. loss at the World Cup, in brief
  26. 39Half-spoken, half-sung passages of an opera
  27. 40Not fair
  28. 43Nearly 90
  29. 44It goes on top
  30. 45Shockingly unconventional
  31. 46Stepped-on instrument
  32. 48"___ chic!"
  33. 50Time divisions
  34. 52"___ You That Somebody?" (1998 Aaliyah hit)
  35. 53Half of a couple

Crossword clues, hints, and answers

Across

  1. 1. Main characters for an early reader — Answer: ABCS. Hint: Think of the basic symbols children learn before reading words. 🔤
  2. 5. They get rings for hoops — Answer: NBACHAMPS. Hint: Basketball champions traditionally receive jewelry for their title. 🏀
  3. 14. Skin-care brand known for its pore strips — Answer: BIORE. Hint: This brand’s nose strips are a familiar beauty-counter staple. 🧖
  4. 15. Large restaurant vessel shaped like another vessel — Answer: SUSHIBOAT. Hint: Picture a sushi platter styled as something that sails. ⛵
  5. 16. Conference handout — Answer: IDTAG. Hint: This small badge identifies attendees at a convention. 🎟️
  6. 17. Dubious sighting in the night sky — Answer: ALIENSHIP. Hint: Imagine a questionable report of a spacecraft encounter. 👽
  7. 18. Started to boil — Answer: GOTMAD. Hint: The phrase works for both heated water and an angry person. 🔥
  8. 20. Work, as a joke — Answer: LAND. Hint: A good punchline does this successfully with its audience. 😂
  9. 21. Romance author Huang — Answer: ANA. Hint: This author is known for contemporary love stories. 💕
  10. 22. They might be rehabbed with knee flexion — Answer: ACLS. Hint: These knee ligaments can require strengthening after injury. 🦵
  11. 23. His #33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003 — Answer: EWING. Hint: Think of the Hall of Fame center who led New York for years. 🏀
  12. 25. Winner of the 2025 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, with "The" — Answer: PITT. Hint: The award-winning medical drama takes place in a busy hospital. 🏥
  13. 26. Personne canonisée: Abbr. — Answer: STE. Hint: French abbreviations use this for a canonized woman. ✝️
  14. 27. ___ Capital, investment firm co-founded by Mitt Romney — Answer: BAIN. Hint: Fill in the name of Romney’s well-known private-equity firm. 💼
  15. 28. Hits the mark, in a way — Answer: PARS. Hint: In golf, these scores meet the course’s expected standard. ⛳
  16. 29. Many people climb it — Answer: SOCIALLADDER. Hint: This metaphorical structure represents rising in status. 📈
  17. 33. Naturally concluded — Answer: RANITSCOURSE. Hint: A process that reaches its expected end can be described this way. 🏁
  18. 35. Ones giving a toast at an outdoor party? — Answer: PATIOHEATERS. Hint: These outdoor appliances warm guests while playfully suggesting toasted bread. 🔥
  19. 37. Court session, perhaps — Answer: TENNISLESSON. Hint: A session on a court may involve rackets instead of legal arguments. 🎾
  20. 39. Like much of Libya — Answer: ARID. Hint: Much of the country is desert-like and receives very little rain. 🏜️
  21. 41. Depicting the world bleakly and cynically — Answer: NOIR. Hint: A dark, fatalistic style often associated with crime stories. 🕵️
  22. 42. Put your back into it — Answer: TRY. Hint: A pep-talk command urging effort and determination. 💪
  23. 43. "Sweet dreams are made of cheese / Who am I to dis a ___?" (parody lyrics) — Answer: BRIE. Hint: The missing food in this playful lyric is a soft French cheese. 🧀
  24. 44. Is immersed — Answer: SOAKS. Hint: What rain does to clothes left on a line. 🌧️
  25. 46. Fair trade, say — Answer: SWAP. Hint: An exchange in which each side gets something from the other. 🔄
  26. 47. "It is not easy for a ___ to balance himself on a ladder": "Animal Farm" — Answer: PIG. Hint: The farm animal being discussed has a curly tail and a fondness for mud. 🐷
  27. 48. A word in closing — Answer: THUS. Hint: A formal little word meaning “therefore” or “in this way.” 📖
  28. 49. Relative of house music — Answer: TECHNO. Hint: A beat-driven electronic genre related to house. 🎛️
  29. 51. Inverse of an exponential function — Answer: LOGARITHM. Hint: The operation that undoes exponentiation. 🧮
  30. 54. Vikings' offense? — Answer: RAIDS. Hint: What Norse raiders might launch, or what a football team might mount unexpectedly. ⚔️
  31. 55. What a supposed bug is often revealed to be — Answer: USERERROR. Hint: The real culprit may be the person at the keyboard, not the software. 🖥️
  32. 56. Grant — Answer: ALLOT. Hint: To distribute or assign a share of something. 🎁
  33. 57. Deftly evades — Answer: SIDESTEPS. Hint: Avoids an issue or obstacle with nimble footwork. 🏃
  34. 58. Come off as — Answer: SEEM. Hint: Give the impression of being a certain way to others. 👀

Down

  1. 1. Nonhuman provider of medical advice — Answer: AIDOCTOR. Hint: A digital medical consultant that offers guidance without being human. 🤖
  2. 2. Neck topper — Answer: BOTTLECAP. Hint: A small top that seals a familiar container. 🧴
  3. 3. Shoves (in) — Answer: CRAMS. Hint: Packs something tightly into a limited space. 📦
  4. 4. Sonic system — Answer: SEGA. Hint: The game company behind Sonic the Hedgehog. 🎮
  5. 5. Org. featured in 1998's "Enemy of the State" — Answer: NSA. Hint: The U.S. intelligence agency known by three initials. 🕵️
  6. 6. Breaking character? — Answer: BULLINACHINASHOP. Hint: Someone who disrupts a delicate situation is compared to this clumsy visitor. 🐂
  7. 7. Like parts of Istanbul — Answer: ASIAN. Hint: Describes the side of Istanbul lying east of the Bosporus. 🌏
  8. 8. Common Chinese surname — Answer: CHENG. Hint: This family name is especially common among Chinese communities. 🧧
  9. 9. ___ legs — Answer: HIND. Hint: Look behind an animal for these rear appendages. 🐾
  10. 10. Stability aids, informally — Answer: ABS. Hint: A car’s braking system may rely on these safety features. 🚗
  11. 11. Soft, silky material — Answer: MOHAIR. Hint: This luxurious animal fiber is prized for its softness and sheen. 🧶
  12. 12. Depicts stylishly — Answer: PAINTS. Hint: Creates a fashionable visual portrayal. 🎨
  13. 13. Green day star, for short — Answer: STPAT. Hint: This festive nickname honors Ireland’s patron saint. 🍀
  14. 14. Humongous, slangily — Answer: BIGASS. Hint: A very casual way to call something enormous. 🐘
  15. 19. Stocked and sold, as goods — Answer: DEALTIN. Hint: Merchandise handled by a retailer has been both supplied and sold. 🛍️
  16. 24. August ___, "Fences" playwright — Answer: WILSON. Hint: The playwright behind Fences also wrote Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. 🎭
  17. 25. Makes sense of — Answer: PARSES. Hint: Carefully breaks information down to understand it. 🔍
  18. 27. Deliberately exasperated — Answer: BAITED. Hint: Provoked someone intentionally to test their patience. 😈
  19. 28. More sassy — Answer: PERTER. Hint: Use a comparative adjective for someone with extra attitude. 💁
  20. 30. Indecisive way to end — Answer: INATIE. Hint: This describes a conclusion that leaves both sides even. ⚖️
  21. 31. Gets by — Answer: DOESOK. Hint: This casual phrase means manages adequately. 👍
  22. 32. Binary, in a way — Answer: DUALIST. Hint: Describes a thinker who sees reality as divided into two fundamental realms. ☯️
  23. 34. Former — Answer: ERSTWHILE. Hint: A literary way to refer to something from an earlier time. 🕰️
  24. 36. "Wow ... what are the chances?!" — Answer: SORANDOM. Hint: A playful reaction to an astonishing coincidence. 🎲
  25. 38. Publisher of the front-page headline "This sport is stupid anyway" after a U.S. loss at the World Cup, in brief — Answer: NYPOST. Hint: Think of the abbreviated New York tabloid known for bold headlines. 📰
  26. 39. Half-spoken, half-sung passages of an opera — Answer: ARIOSI. Hint: These operatic passages blend speechlike flow with lyrical melody. 🎼
  27. 40. Not fair — Answer: RIGGED. Hint: A contest secretly fixed in advance deserves this accusation. 🎯
  28. 43. Nearly 90 — Answer: BPLUS. Hint: A strong school mark just shy of the top grade 📚
  29. 44. It goes on top — Answer: SHIRT. Hint: This garment is worn over the torso 👕
  30. 45. Shockingly unconventional — Answer: OUTRE. Hint: A fashion choice so unusual it shocks convention 😲
  31. 46. Stepped-on instrument — Answer: SCALE. Hint: Step on this to find out how much you weigh ⚖️
  32. 48. "___ chic!" — Answer: TRES. Hint: Complete the French-flavored phrase praising someone’s style 🇫🇷
  33. 50. Time divisions — Answer: ERAS. Hint: These mark broad stretches of history ⏳
  34. 52. "___ You That Somebody?" (1998 Aaliyah hit) — Answer: ARE. Hint: Complete Aaliyah’s 1998 hit title, a question about being someone’s special person 🎵
  35. 53. Half of a couple — Answer: MRS. Hint: The title used by one member of a married pair 💍

The answer to “It goes on top” in the New York Times crossword is SHIRT — a 5-letter word. It most recently appeared in the New York Times crossword on August 29, 2026, a Saturday puzzle, at 44-Down. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“It goes on top” answer

SHIRT (5 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is SHIRT.

What does SHIRT mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of SHIRT is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

(noun)

  • a garment for the upper body made of cotton or a similar fabric, with a collar and sleeves, and with buttons down the front

When else has “It goes on top” appeared?

New York Times reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

August 29, 2026 (most recent) → SHIRT. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

Frequently asked questions

What is the answer to “It goes on top”?

The answer is SHIRT, a 5-letter word. It most recently appeared in the New York Times crossword on August 29, 2026.

How many letters is the answer to “It goes on top”?

5 letters: SHIRT.

When did this clue appear?

Most recently in the New York Times crossword on August 29, 2026 (a Saturday puzzle), at 44-Down.

Can “It goes on top” have a different answer?

Yes — New York Times sometimes reuses a clue with a different solution to fit the grid. The answers we've recorded for each date it appeared are listed above when available.

Where can I find the rest of this day's NYT Crossword answers?

The full grid for August 29, 2026 is on the NYT Crossword answers page, with every clue and answer from that puzzle.

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