‘Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand’ NYT Mini Crossword clue answer and hints

With how fundamental bathrooms are to our everyday lives, it’s not too surprising there are many ways to refer to this space. Today’s “Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand” clue challenges you to uncover a very particular way of referring to this location.

This is a pretty tricky clue to solve, and it’s also very short, which means there are only a few letters to uncover. If you’re stumped by this one, here are some clues and the answer to help you solve the “Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand” hint on the Sept. 19 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle.

‘Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand’ NYT Sept. 19 Mini Crossword hints

• Hint 1: It starts with “W.”
• Hint 2: You’re looking for an abbreviation, not a word.
• Hint 3: There are signs all around Europe with this word on them.
• Hint 4: It ends with the letter “S.”

Stop here and don’t go any further until you’re ready to learn the solution because I’m about to reveal it.

‘Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand’ NYT Mini answer

The solution for the “Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand” clue on the Sept. 19 NYT Mini Crossword is “WCS.” This is an abbreviation for the word water closets, which is a common European way of referring to the bathroom, restroom, or toilets.

If you’ve ever been to Europe or currently live there, you’re likely familiar with this word and abbreviation. There are plenty of signs around Europe marking water closets with the “WC” abbreviation.

‘Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand’ clue difficulty rating

Although I’ve been to Europe, this clue had me absolutely stumped. It’s such a short word, but it’s a really tough one to uncover even if you are familiar with this abbreviation since it can be pretty difficult to connect the shorthand version of this term with this clue. Adding an “S” at the end is really what makes it tricky since you might think of “WC” but not realize you need to add an additional letter to solve this one.

With all of this in mind, I’m giving the “Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand” clue a full five out of five difficulty rating. I’ve seen plenty of tough clues throughout the daily NYT Mini Crosswords, but this is certainly one of the trickiest ones yet.

All NYT Mini Crossword Sept. 19 answers

Across

• 1A With 4- and 5-across, opposite of a fantasy land — THE
• 4A See 1-across — REAL
• 5A See 1-across — WORLD
• 6A Bend in the road — CURVE
• 7A Be in the driver’s seat — STEER

Down

• 1D French for “earth” — TERRE
• 2D Slice in two — HALVE
• 3D ____statesman — ELDER
• 4D Overwhelming victory — ROUT
• 5D Rooms with toilets, in European shorthand — WCS

How to play games like the NYT Mini Crossword

The word game fun doesn’t have to end after you finish the Sept. 19 NYT Mini Crossword since there are plenty of other experiences like it. You can head over to the LA Times or the Washington Post if you want more daily crosswords to solve.

If you’re looking for something new and different to tackle instead, you might enjoy trying out Strands or Spelling Bee. These are both still word games, but with unique formats and gameplay different from a regular crossword puzzle so you can mix things up. Strands tasks you with uncovering hidden words to discover the secret daily theme while Spelling Bee invites you to see how many words you can make with just seven letters.