Crossword
Fill the grid by solving clues. Letters interlock where words cross, so every answer helps you crack the next one. Pick a difficulty and go.
Crossword
7×7 grid. Common words, straightforward clues.
Standard play. Timer runs. Hints available.
How to play
Each numbered cell on the grid starts an entry that reads across, down, or both. A panel beside the grid (or above it on mobile) lists the clues. Click a clue to jump to its starting cell, or click any cell and start typing.
Letters advance automatically in the direction of the active entry. Press Space or tap the same cell again to switch between Across and Down. Arrow keys move cell by cell and auto-switch direction. Tab jumps to the next unanswered clue.
When you get stuck, the Check Word button tells you which letters in the current entry are right (green) or wrong (red). The hint system gives you progressively more information without spoiling the full answer.
Want the full rundown? Read the rules and keyboard shortcuts.
Play modes
Classic
Timer runs. Up to 3 hints. Check words any time. The standard way to play.
Timed Trial
Beat the clock. Bigger grids get more time. Hints still available.
Challenge
No hints, no check, no undo. Every letter sticks.
How to solve crossword puzzles
Practical techniques from first pass to final fill.
Crosswords reward a mix of vocabulary knowledge and pattern recognition. The clue tells you what the answer means; the crossing letters tell you what it looks like. Getting good at crosswords means learning to play both sources of information against each other.
Start with the fill-in-the-blank clues
Clues that contain a blank (e.g., "___ of the crop") have exactly one answer. They are the closest thing to free squares on the board. Fill them in first to seed crossing letters across the grid.
Work the short entries early
Three-letter and four-letter words have a small number of common answers. Solving them gives you confirmed letters in multiple crossing entries. A single three-letter solve can unlock two or three longer words that run through it.
Use crossing letters aggressively
Every white cell belongs to two entries. Once you fill in an across word, go back and read the down entries that cross it. You might have enough letters to solve them outright, or at least to narrow them down to one or two candidates. The more you cross-reference, the faster the grid fills.
Read the clue carefully — literally
Crossword clues are precise. If the clue is plural, the answer is plural. If the clue is past tense, the answer ends in -ED. If the clue contains an abbreviation, the answer is probably abbreviated too. These small grammar signals eliminate a lot of wrong guesses.
Skip and come back
If you stare at a clue for more than 15 seconds and nothing comes to mind, move on. Come back after you have more crossing letters. A clue that was impossible with zero crossings often becomes obvious with two or three letters already placed.
Common crossword vocabulary
Certain words appear in crosswords far more often than in everyday language. Three-letter entries like ERA, ORE, ATE, and ODE show up constantly because they contain common letters and fit many grid patterns. You will start recognizing these "crosswordese" words after a few puzzles, and they become reliable footholds.
What each difficulty level looks like
- Easy — 7×7 grid, common vocabulary, direct definitions. Most clues have a single obvious answer. A good starting point if you have not solved crosswords before.
- Medium — 9×9 grid. Vocabulary widens. Clues get a bit more indirect. You will start needing crossing letters to confirm answers.
- Hard — 11×11 grid. Advanced vocabulary. Multi-meaning clues where the surface reading misdirects you. Cross-referencing becomes essential.
- Expert — 11×11 grid with denser fill and tighter interlocking. Fewer black squares means more crossings to manage. Clue difficulty is high.
- Einstein — 13×13 full-size grid. Expert-level vocabulary with long entries. Each puzzle takes 15–20 minutes for experienced solvers.
What is a crossword puzzle?
A crossword is a word puzzle on a rectangular grid of white and black squares. White squares get filled with letters; black squares act as dividers between entries. Each entry has a numbered clue that tells you (sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely) what word to write. Entries run in two directions — across (left to right) and down (top to bottom) — and where they intersect, they share a letter.
That shared letter is what makes crosswords work. If you solve an across entry, you automatically get one or more letters for every down entry that crosses it. A well-constructed crossword uses these intersections so that a solver who gets stuck on one clue can often figure it out from crossing letters alone.
The format dates to December 1913, when Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped "Word-Cross" puzzle in the New York World newspaper. It caught on quickly. By the 1920s, crosswords were a national craze, and Simon & Schuster launched their publishing company in 1924 with a crossword puzzle book as their first title. The format has evolved since — grids became square, black-square patterns became symmetrical, clue styles got more creative — but the core mechanic of interlocking words guided by clues has not changed.
Modern crosswords, including the puzzles here, range from small beginner grids (5×5 minis, 7×7 easy) to full-size 13×13 and 15×15 layouts. Smaller grids tend to use straightforward definitions. Larger grids incorporate wordplay, misdirection, and obscure vocabulary. The difficulty comes not just from the words themselves but from how the constructor clues them.
This version of the crossword plays entirely in the browser. The grid is interactive — click or tap a cell, type a letter, and it advances to the next cell. The clue panel sits beside the grid on desktop and collapses into a scrollable bar on mobile. Three progressive hints are available per puzzle: the first tells you the answer length, the second gives you the starting letter, and the third reveals a letter in the grid. You can check individual words or the entire puzzle at any time.
A short history of crossword puzzles
Arthur Wynne, a Liverpool-born journalist working at the New York World, created the first published crossword on December 21, 1913. He called it a "Word-Cross Puzzle" and laid it out in a diamond shape with no black squares. The clues were simple definitions. Readers liked it so much that the newspaper made it a weekly feature, and a typesetting error soon renamed it "Cross-Word."
The puzzle spread to other newspapers through the 1920s. In 1924, two Columbia University graduates, Richard Simon and Max Schuster, published the first book of crossword puzzles. It became a bestseller, launched Simon & Schuster as a publishing house, and proved that crosswords were more than a newspaper novelty.
The New York Times resisted crosswords until 1942, dismissing them as a "primitive form of mental exercise." When they finally added one, edited by Margaret Farrar, it became the gold standard — a reputation it holds today under Will Shortz, who has edited the NYT puzzle since 1993 and is probably the most recognized name in crosswords.
Digital crosswords started appearing in the 1990s and exploded with the smartphone era. The basic mechanic translates perfectly to screens: tap a cell, type a letter, move to the next. Touch interfaces actually improve the experience by letting you tap clues to jump directly to their entries. Today, millions of people solve crosswords on their phones every day, and the format shows no sign of slowing down.
More word puzzles: Anagram (unscramble shuffled letters), Word Search (find hidden words in a grid). Or try something different: Games (Sudoku, Minesweeper, KenKen), Logic (grids, patterns, deduction), Math (riddles, brain teasers).