Crossword facts for kids

A newspaper-style crossword puzzle

A crossword, or crossword puzzle, is a popular type of puzzle that uses words. They are usually found in newspapers, magazines, and in books. They can also be played over the Internet and using mobile apps.

The first crossword puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool. It first appeared in the December 21, 1913 issue of the New York World. Today, there are many newspapers and magazines that are known for their crossword puzzles, such as the New York Times. A different crossword is typically printed every day or in every issue, and the answer (or solution) is either found somewhere else or often is not seen until the next day or issue.

How to play
Example
- Across
- Down
American-style crosswords
Cryptic crosswords
Other variants
Interesting facts about crossword
Related pages
Images for kids
See also

How to play

A crossword (or crossword puzzle) consists of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.

There are many types of crosswords. Straight (or Quick) crosswords are usually made up of simple definitions - which means that other words are used to describe the answer. Some crosswords, called cryptic crosswords, use riddles and word play and are usually more difficult than straight crosswords.

Example

Here is a small example of a (British-style) straight crossword:

¹	²

³		⁴

	⁵

Across

1. Sheep sound (3)
3. Neither liquid nor gas (5)
5. Humour (3)

Down

1. Road passenger transport (3)
2. Permit (5)
4. Short for "Dorothy" (3)

The solution (answer) to this crossword is:

¹B	⁹A	²A	.	.
⁹U	.	⁹L	.	.
³S	⁹O	⁹L	⁹I	⁴D
.	.	⁹O	.	⁹O
.	.	⁵W	⁹I	⁹T

American-style crosswords

A person works on a crossword puzzle in the subway, New York City, 2008

Crossword grids in most North American newspapers and magazines feature solid areas of white squares. Every letter is checked (i.e. is part of both an "across" word and a "down" word) and usually each answer must contain at least three letters. In such puzzles shaded squares are typically limited to about one-sixth of the total. Crossword grids elsewhere, such as in Britain, South Africa, India and Australia, have a lattice-like structure, with a higher percentage of shaded squares (around 25%), leaving about half the letters in an answer unchecked. For example, if the top row has an answer running all the way across, there will often be no across answers in the second row.

Another tradition in puzzle design (in North America, India, and Britain particularly) is that the grid should have 180-degree rotational symmetry, so that its pattern appears the same if the paper is turned upside down. Most puzzle designs also require that all white cells be orthogonally contiguous (that is, connected in one mass through shared sides, to form a single polyomino).

Substantial variants from the usual forms exist. Two of the common ones are barred crosswords, which use bold lines between squares (instead of shaded squares) to separate answers, and circular designs, with answers entered either radially or in concentric circles. "Free form" crosswords ("criss-cross" puzzles), which have simple, asymmetric designs, are often seen on school worksheets, children's menus, and other entertainment for children. Grids forming shapes other than squares are also occasionally used.

Puzzles are often one of several standard sizes. For example, many weekday newspaper puzzles (such as the American New York Times crossword puzzle) are 15×15 squares, while weekend puzzles may be 21×21, 23×23, or 25×25. The New York Times puzzles also set a common pattern for American crosswords by increasing in difficulty throughout the week: their Monday puzzles are the easiest and the puzzles get harder each day until Saturday. Their larger Sunday puzzle is about the same level of difficulty as a weekday-size Thursday puzzle. This has led U.S. solvers to use the day of the week as a shorthand when describing how hard a puzzle is: e.g. an easy puzzle may be referred to as a "Monday" or a "Tuesday", a medium-difficulty puzzle as a "Wednesday", and a truly difficult puzzle as a "Saturday".

Typically clues appear outside the grid, divided into an across list and a down list; the first cell of each entry contains a number referenced by the clue lists. For example, the answer to a clue labeled "17 Down" is entered with the first letter in the cell numbered "17", proceeding down from there. Numbers are almost never repeated; numbered cells are numbered consecutively, usually from left to right across each row, starting with the top row and proceeding downward. Some Japanese crosswords are numbered from top to bottom down each column, starting with the leftmost column and proceeding right.

Cryptic crosswords

A lattice-style grid common for cryptic crosswords

In cryptic crosswords, the clues are puzzles in themselves. They typically consist of a definition and some type of word play. Cryptic crossword clues need to be viewed two ways. One is a surface reading and one a hidden meaning. The surface reading is the basic reading of the clue to look for key words and how those words are constructed in the clue. The second way is the hidden meaning. This can be a double definition, an anagram, homophone, or words backwards. Solving cryptics is harder to learn than standard crosswords, as learning to interpret the different types of cryptic clues can take some practice. In Great Britain and throughout much of the Commonwealth, cryptics of varying degrees of difficulty are featured in many newspapers.

The first crosswords with strictly cryptic clues appeared in the 1920s, pioneered by Edward Powys Mathers. He established the principle of cryptic crossword clues.

Other variants

These are common crossword variants that vary more from a regular crossword than just an unusual grid shape or unusual clues; these crossword variants may be based on different solving principles and require a different solving skill set.

Cipher crosswords

Cipher crosswords were invented in Germany in the 19th century. A cipher crossword replaces the clues for each entry with clues for each white cell of the grid—an integer from 1 to 26 inclusive is printed in the corner of each. The objective, as any other crossword, is to determine the proper letter for each cell; in a cipher crossword, the 26 numbers serve as a cipher for those letters: cells that share matching numbers are filled with matching letters, and no two numbers stand for the same letter. All resultant entries must be valid words. Usually, at least one number's letter is given at the outset. As these puzzles are closer to codes than quizzes, they require a different skillset; many basic cryptographic techniques, such as determining likely vowels, are key to solving these.

Diagramless crosswords

In a diagramless crossword, often called a diagramless for short or, in the UK, a skeleton crossword or carte blanche, the grid offers overall dimensions, but the locations of most of the clue numbers and shaded squares are unspecified. A solver must deduce not only the answers to individual clues, but how to fit together partially built-up clumps of answers into larger clumps with properly set shaded squares. Some of these puzzles follow the traditional symmetry rule, others have left-right mirror symmetry, and others have greater levels of symmetry or outlines suggesting other shapes. If the symmetry of the grid is given, the solver can use it to his/her advantage.

Fill-in crosswords

A fill-in crossword (also known as crusadex or cruzadex) features a grid and the full list of words to be entered in that grid, but does not give explicit clues for where each word goes. The challenge is figuring out how to integrate the list of words together within the grid so that all intersections of words are valid. Fill-in crosswords may often have longer word length than regular crosswords to make the crossword easier to solve, and symmetry is often disregarded. Fitting together several long words is easier than fitting together several short words because there are fewer possibilities for how the long words intersect together.

Cross-figures

A cross-figure or crossnumber is the numerical analogy of a crossword, in which the solutions to the clues are numbers instead of words. Clues are usually arithmetical expressions, but can also be general knowledge clues to which the answer is a number or year. There are also numerical fill-in crosswords.

Acrostic puzzles

An acrostic is a type of word puzzle that typically consists of two parts. The first is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which the answers for the clues fit. In most forms of the puzzle, the first letters of each correct clue answer, read in order from clue A on down the list, will spell out the author of the quote and the title of the work it is taken from; this can be used as an additional solving aid.

Arroword

The arroword is a variant of a crossword that does not have as many black squares as a true crossword, but has arrows inside the grid, with clues preceding the arrows. It has been called the most popular word puzzle in many European countries, and is often called the Scandinavian crossword, as it is believed to have originated in Sweden.

Interesting facts about crossword

On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a journalist born in Liverpool, England, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the modern genre. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. An illustrator later reversed the "word-cross" name to "cross-word".
The term "crossword" first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1933.
The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Simon & Schuster in 1924, after a suggestion from co-founder Richard Simon's aunt. The publisher was initially skeptical that the book would succeed, and only printed a small run at first. The book was promoted with an included pencil, and "This odd-looking book with a pencil attached to it" was an instant hit, leading crossword puzzles to become a craze of 1924.
The New York Times began to publish a crossword puzzle on 15 February 1942, spurred on by the idea that the puzzle could be a welcome distraction from the harsh news of World War II. The New York Times's first puzzle editor was Margaret Petherbridge Farrar, who was editor from 1942 to 1969. She was succeeded by Will Weng.
According to Guinness World Records, May 15, 2007, the most prolific crossword compiler is Roger Squires of Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK. On May 14, 2007, he published his 66,666th crossword, equivalent to 2 million clues.
The record for the longest word ever used in a published crossword is the 58-letter Welsh town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch clued as an anagram.
In the Japanese language because of the writing system, one syllable (typically katakana) is entered into each white cell of the grid rather than one letter, resulting in the typical solving grid seeming small in comparison to those of other languages.
The record for most crosswords published in The New York Times is held by Manny Nosowsky, who has had 241 puzzles in that outlet.
Swedish crosswords are mainly in the illustrated (photos or drawings), in-line clue style typical of the "Swedish-style grid". The "Swedish-style" grid (picture crosswords) uses no clue numbers. Instead, clues are contained in the cells which do not contain answers, with arrows indicating where and in what direction to fill in answers.

Images for kids

Recreation of Arthur Wynne's original crossword puzzle from December 21, 1913
Finalists competing in a crossword competition in New York City in 2019
A 1925 Punch cartoon about "The Cross-Word Mania". A man phones his doctor in the middle of the night, asking for "the name of a bodily disorder of seven letters, of which the second letter must be 'N'".
Person solving a Finnish crossword puzzle
A Bengali crossword grid