Crossword
puzzleAcross
Down
How to play Crossword
I tap or click a square to start typing letters, and the word I am working on lights up in orange. Tapping the same square again switches me between the across word and the down word that share it. I can also click any clue in the lists below to jump straight to that word, and the arrow keys move me around the grid.
I fill the grid using the across and down clues. The Check button marks my correct letters and tells me how many still need fixing, the Reveal button fills in the whole answer if I get stuck, and Restart clears the grid so I can solve it again. The puzzle lets me know as soon as every square is correct.
About Crossword
The crossword was born in a newspaper: Arthur Wynne published the first "word-cross" in the New York World on December 21, 1913, and within a decade the puzzle had triggered a full-blown international craze. The format has barely needed to change since, a symmetrical grid, numbered clues across and down, and answers that interlock so every letter is checked twice.
That interlocking is the crossword's quiet genius: you never solve a clue entirely alone, because every answer donates letters to its crossing words. Stuck on a clue is a temporary condition, not a dead end. This browser version gives you a clean grid you can play with keyboard on desktop or taps on mobile, no printing, no pencil shavings.
Crossword solving technique
- Do a first pass answering only the clues you are sure of. Every confirmed letter turns a hard crossing clue into an easier one.
- Fill-in-the-blank clues are almost always the easiest in the grid. Hunt them down first.
- Trust the crossings over your instinct. If a crossing letter contradicts your answer, your answer is usually the wrong one.
- Watch the clue's tense and number: a plural clue means an answer ending in S far more often than not, and past tense usually means ED.
- Put the puzzle down when stuck. The break really works; your brain keeps searching in the background.
FAQ
What is the best way to start a crossword?
Skim every clue once and immediately fill only the certainties, short answers and fill-in-the-blanks first. That skeleton of confirmed letters is what cracks the clues you had no idea about on first read.
What do question marks on clues mean?
A question mark warns that the clue is wordplay, a pun or misdirection rather than a straight definition. Read it again looking for the double meaning; the surface reading is deliberately the wrong one.
Am I cheating if I reveal a letter?
It is your puzzle. Revealing a letter to break a logjam and then solving on from it teaches you more than staring at an empty grid, especially while you are learning the common crossword vocabulary that repeats from puzzle to puzzle.
Why are the same weird little words in so many crosswords?
Grid construction demands short vowel-heavy words to make the interlocks work, so ERA, OREO, ALOE and friends appear constantly. Solvers call it crosswordese. Learn a handful and every future puzzle gets faster.
