How to solve a Crossword

What a crossword is

A crossword is a grid of white and black squares in which every white square holds one letter. Words run across, left to right, and down, top to bottom, and each starts in a numbered square. A list of clues gives one hint for every word. The answers cross each other, so every word you solve hands you letters for others, and that is what makes even a hard puzzle solvable.

Playing crosswords on AllFun

AllFun Crossword fits the whole grid on a phone screen, with the current clue just above the letter keys. On a computer you type on your own keyboard: Tab or Enter jumps to the next clue, Space switches between Across and Down, and the arrow keys move around. Every puzzle was built for this game and every clue written by us.

The Daily Crossword is the same for everyone and grows through the week, from a 7×7 on Monday to a 13×13 at the weekend; the calendar keeps your streak and lets you play missed days. Puzzle packs offer Quick 5×5, Short 7×7, Classic 9×9, Big 11×11 and Grand 13×13, with ten Easy, ten Medium and ten Hard in each. Pencil marks a guess, Check flags wrong letters and Reveal shows a square or a word. Solve with no help for three stars.

How crosswords work

Reading the grid

A numbered square can start an across word, a down word, or both. Clues are listed under Across and Down by those numbers, so "14 Across" is the word that starts in square 14 and runs right. The number of white squares tells you the length of the answer. Answers ignore spaces and punctuation: a two-word answer fills its squares as one run of letters.

The grid style

In the open style we use, as in most daily newspaper puzzles, every white square belongs to both an across and a down word, and the pattern of black squares looks the same when the grid is turned upside down. Other puzzles, especially cryptic ones, leave about half their letters crossed by only one word.

Clue styles

• Definitions: the plainest clue is a short meaning. "Bottomless pit" gives ABYSS.
• Fill in the blank: a phrase with a gap. "'All ___!' (conductor's call)" gives ABOARD.
• Matching form: the answer takes the clue's tense and number. "Died down" wants ABATED, not ABATE.
• Signals: "say", "for one" or "maybe" mean the answer is an example; "informally" points to slang, and an abbreviation in the clue asks for a short answer.
• A question mark: a clue ending in "?" is playing with words, so do not take it literally.

Our clues come in two flavours, a plain one for easier puzzles and a trickier one for harder ones. None are cryptic: there are no anagrams or hidden words to decode.

Six tips for beginners

1. Start with the blanks. Fill-in-the-blank clues and short words are the easiest way into any grid.
2. Lean on the crossings. One sure letter often unlocks the word across from it. Work outward from what you know.
3. Try common endings. A plural clue often ends in S, a past tense in ED, and an action in ING. Pencil them in early.
4. Learn the regulars. Short words full of vowels, such as ERA, ERR, EGO and ORE, turn up again and again because they fit so many grids.
5. Move on, then come back. Leave a stubborn corner, solve elsewhere, and return with more letters filled in.
6. Start small. A 5×5 on Easy teaches the habits in a few minutes. Move to bigger grids and harder clues as you go.

A short history

The first crossword appeared in a newspaper in December 1913: a diamond-shaped grid with simple definitions. Within ten years crosswords had become a craze, books of puzzles sold in huge numbers, and the daily crossword has been a newspaper fixture ever since.

Crossword FAQ