You’ve been staring at the grid for twenty minutes. The coffee is cold. You have "U-S-E" at the start of a seven-letter word, and the clue says "good for nothing." Your brain immediately shouts useless. It fits. You scribble it in, feel a surge of triumph, and then realize the crossing word for the second "S" is supposed to be a type of flightless bird starting with "E."
Wait. Emu? No, that doesn't work. Ehea? Not a thing.
This is the specific torture of the good for nothing crossword clue. It’s one of those linguistic chameleons that puzzle constructors like Will Shortz or the team at the LA Times love to toss at us because "good for nothing" can mean a dozen different things depending on the part of speech. It might be an adjective. It might be a noun. It might be a very specific 19th-century insult that nobody has used since the Taft administration.
The Many Faces of the Good For Nothing Crossword Answer
Crosswords aren't just about what a word means; they’re about how a word functions. When you see "good for nothing," your first instinct is usually to look for a synonym for "worthless." But if the answer is a noun, you’re looking for a person. A "good-for-nothing" (with the hyphens implied) is a person who lacks ambition or worth.
In the New York Times crossword ecosystem, the most common answer for this is USELESS. It’s the bread and butter of Monday and Tuesday puzzles. It’s literal. It’s direct. It's boring.
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But as the week progresses and the puzzles get harder, the "good for nothing" clue starts to shift. Suddenly, you aren’t looking for useless. You might be looking for OTIOSE. That’s a favorite for Friday or Saturday slots. It specifically refers to something serving no practical purpose or result. It feels fancy. It feels like something a Victorian novelist would use to describe a lazy nephew.
When the Answer is a Person
Sometimes the clue isn't asking for a description. It's asking for a character. If the grid requires a four-letter word, you’re probably looking at BUM. If it’s six letters? NEERDO. Short for "ne'er-do-well." This is a classic "crosswordese" staple. You’ll see it pop up in the Wall Street Journal puzzles quite often because it has a high vowel-to-constant ratio that helps constructors bridge difficult corners of the grid.
Then there is IDLER. It’s a bit softer than "bum," but it fits the "good for nothing" vibe perfectly. If you're working on a USA Today puzzle, which tends to be slightly more accessible, LAZIER or DO NOTHING might even show up, though the latter is rare because multi-word answers usually have some sort of indicator in the clue.
Why the Context of the Grid Changes Everything
You have to look at the "crosses." That is the golden rule.
Let's say you have _ _ _ _ T.
Your brain goes to INERT. Is someone who is inert "good for nothing"? Kinda. They aren't doing anything, right? But usually, "inert" refers to chemical properties or physical stillness. In crossword logic, "good for nothing" is more about a lack of utility or moral failing.
If the answer is VAIN, the clue might have been "In ___" (meaning for nothing/without result), which is a clever play on the "good for nothing" phrasing. This is where people get stuck. They look at the phrase as a single unit rather than breaking it down.
The "Free" vs "Worthless" Trap
Here is a trick that catches even seasoned solvers. "Good for nothing" can literally mean "something you can get without paying."
FREE.
If the clue is "Good for nothing?" (note the question mark—that's the constructor's way of saying "I'm being a bit of a jerk here"), the answer might be GRATIS. In this context, the "good" is a noun (like a product or service) and the "for nothing" means at no cost. This is the kind of wordplay that makes people want to throw their tablet across the room. It’s technically accurate, but it subverts your initial emotional reaction to the phrase.
Famous Examples from Major Publications
If we look at the historical data from databases like XWordInfo, we can see how different editors handle this specific clue.
- The New York Times (NYT): They lean heavily on USELESS (35+ occurrences) and OTIOSE. They also occasionally use NAUGHT or NIL if the clue is phrased as "Good for nothing" (meaning the score is zero).
- The LA Times: They are big fans of TRASHY or NO ACCOUNT. The phrase "no-account" is a very specific Americanism that fits the "good for nothing" mold perfectly.
- Universal Crossword: You’ll often find WASTE or DUD.
Honestly, the word DUD is a great one to keep in your back pocket. It’s short, it ends in a consonant that is easy to bridge, and it perfectly captures the essence of a thing that is "good for nothing."
Misconceptions That Stunt Your Solving Speed
Most people think crosswords are about having a massive vocabulary. They aren't. They are about pattern recognition and understanding the "meta-language" of editors.
One big misconception is that the clue must be a direct synonym. It doesn't. It just has to be a functional replacement in a sentence. If I can replace "good-for-nothing" with "worthless" in a sentence, it's a valid clue-answer pair.
Another mistake? Ignoring the tense. If the clue was "Was good for nothing," the answer needs to be past tense, like AVAILED. "It availed nothing." It’s a bit of a stretch, but in the world of competitive puzzling, those stretches are what separate the amateurs from the people who finish the Saturday puzzle in six minutes.
The Semantic Range of "Nothing"
In the world of the good for nothing crossword clue, "nothing" isn't always zero.
- NADA: Often used if the puzzle has a slight Spanish influence or if the constructor needs those specific vowels.
- ZIP: A common three-letter answer for "nothing," though rarely used for "good for nothing" unless the clue is "Good ___" (as in "good for zip").
- ADIEU: Not "nothing," but often confused by beginners because it's a common short word. (Okay, that’s a reach, but stay with me).
The real "nothing" synonyms that appear are VOID, NULL, and ZERO. If the clue is "Good for nothing," and the answer is NULL, it's usually referring to a contract or a legal "null and void" status.
How to Beat the Clue Every Time
When you see "good for nothing" in your next puzzle, don't just write in "useless." Take a breath.
Look at the length.
- 3 Letters: BUM, NIL, ZIP
- 4 Letters: VOID, VAIN, IDLE
- 5 Letters: INERT, DROSS, EMPTY
- 6 Letters: OTIOSE, NADA, TRASHY
- 7 Letters: USELESS, UNFIT, NO-GOOD
Check the terminal letters. If the word ends in a "Y," think TRASHY. If it ends in an "S," you might be looking at GRATIS or USELESS.
The most important thing to remember is that the "good" in the clue might be a noun. If you can't find a synonym for "worthless," try finding a synonym for "cost-free."
Real-World Solving Strategy
I remember a specific puzzle from 2022 where the clue was simply "Good-for-nothings." The plural is the key. People kept trying to fit "useless" and failing because of that "S" at the end. The answer turned out to be PIFFLE.
Wait, piffle?
Actually, no. Piffle is nonsense. The answer was RIFFRAFF.
Eight letters. It fit perfectly. "Riffraff" as a collective noun for people who are perceived as good for nothing. That’s the kind of lateral thinking that makes crosswords a workout for the brain rather than just a test of memory.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Grid
Stop guessing and start analyzing. If you hit this clue and get stuck, follow this workflow:
- Count the squares immediately. This sounds obvious, but your brain often skips this and just offers words it likes.
- Check for a question mark. If there’s a "?", the answer is a pun. It’s probably FREE or GRATIS.
- Identify the part of speech. Is the clue "A good-for-nothing" (noun) or "That's good for nothing" (adjective)?
- Look for "Crosswordese." If it’s a high-difficulty puzzle, lean toward OTIOSE or NEERDO.
- Fill in the crosses first. Never commit to a "good for nothing" answer until you have at least two crossing letters. The synonym pool is just too wide.
The good for nothing crossword clue isn't there to stop you. It’s there to make you think about language as a flexible, weird, and often frustrating tool. It’s a reminder that one phrase can mean "broken," "free," "lazy," or "zero" all at the same time.
Next time you see it, you'll be ready. You won't fall for the "useless" trap unless it's actually the answer. And if it's "otiose," you can feel a little smug for knowing a word that most people haven't thought about since they read Ulysses in college.
Keep your pencil sharp and your eraser handy. You’re going to need both. Crosswords are a game of patience, and "good for nothing" is just another hurdle on the way to that final, satisfying "all squares correct" notification.
Study the common three-letter and four-letter variants like BUM and IDLE. These are the most frequent culprits in smaller grids or "quick" crosswords found in daily newspapers. If you can master those, the rest of the puzzle usually falls into place through simple deduction. Focusing on the short words first builds the skeleton of the grid, making the longer, more complex answers like WORTHLESS or VALUELESS much easier to spot through the noise of the empty squares.