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A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages which are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The black squares are used to separate the words or phrases. A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. ...
GRID can refer to : GRID computing short for gay-related immune deficiency, a former name for AIDS. See also homosexuality and medical science General Repository for Interaction Datasets, a database of biological interactions hosted at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid...
Look up Clue in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication.
Terminology
The creating of crosswords is called cruciverbalism among its practitioners, who are referred to as cruciverbalists. The terms derive from the Latin for cross and word. Although the terms have existed since the mid 1970s, non-cruciverbalists rarely use them, calling crossword creators constructors or (especially outside the United States) setters. Many puzzle creators in the UK regard this term as affected or pretentious and consider that "compiler" is adequate. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
The horizontal and vertical lines of white cells into which answers are written are commonly called entries or answers. The clues are usually called just that, or sometimes definitions. White cells are sometimes called lights, and the black cells are sometimes called darks, blanks, or blocks.
A white cell that is part of two entries (both Across and Down) is called checked, keyed or crossed. A white cell that is part of only one entry is called unchecked, unkeyed or uncrossed.
Types of grid Crossword grids such as those appearing in most North American newspapers and magazines feature solid chunks of white squares. Every letter is checked, and usually each answer is required to contain at least three letters. In such puzzles black squares are traditionally limited to about one-sixth of the design. Crossword grids elsewhere, such as in Britain and Australia, have a lattice-like structure, with a higher percentage of black squares, leaving up to half the letters in an answer unchecked. For example, if the top row has an answer running all the way across, there will be no across answers in the second row. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
The ordinary meaning of lattice is the basis for several technical usages A cherry lattice pastry A mathematical lattice that is a type of partially ordered set. ...
Another tradition in puzzle design (in North America 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). Sphere symmetry group o. ...
A polyomino is a polyform with the square as its base form. ...
The design of Japanese crossword grids often follows two additional rules: that black cells may not share a side and that the corner squares must be white.
Substantial variants from the usual forms exist. Two of the common ones are barred crosswords, which use bold lines between squares (instead of black squares) to separate answers, and circular designs, with answers entered either radially or in concentric circles. Free form crosswords have simple designs and are not symmetric. Grids forming shapes other than squares are also occasionally used.
Puzzles are often one of several standard sizes. For example, many weekday puzzles (such as the New York Times crossword) are 15×15 squares, while weekend puzzles may be 21×21, 23×23 or 25×25.
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 labeled 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.
Some crosswords do not number the clues, but have their clues in small print inside grid cells which act as blanks, each clue with a little arrow indicating in which direction from its initial cell the answer is to be written. This kind of crossword originated in Scandinavia and has many different names: "Arrowwords", "Pointers" or "Tipwords" in English, Autodefinidos in Spanish, "Mots Flêchés" in French, etc, and are very popular, often being printed larger than conventional crosswords (to allow adequate space for printing the clues) and are much-used in competitions.
Answers are printed in upper case letters. This ensures a proper name can have its initial capital letter checked with a non-capitalizable letter in the intersecting clue. Diacritical markings in foreign loanwords are ignored for similar reasons. This also applies in foreign language puzzles; for example: Majuscules or capital letters (in the Roman alphabet: A, B, C, ...) are one type of case in a writing system. ...
A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic (1. ...
Capitalization (or capitalisation) is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule (upper case letter) and the remaining letters in minuscules (lower case letters), in those writing systems which have a case distinction. ...
A diacritic mark or accent mark is an additional mark added to a basic letter. ...
A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...
- in French, the initial Ê of answer ÊTRE can double as the final É of CONGÉ when written ETRE and CONGE;
- in German language crosswords, the umlauts ä, ö, and ü are dissolved into ae, oe, and ue, and ß is dissolved into ss.
In Dutch crosswords, the ij digraph is considered one letter, filling one square, and the IJ and the Y (see Dutch alphabet) are considered distinct. Rules may vary in other word games. German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...
In linguistics, the process of umlaut (from German um- around + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ...
The glyph ß is a ligature of ſ (long s) and s or z that has become a distinct letter in the German alphabet; its German name is Eszett (IPA: ) or scharfes S (sharp S). ...
The words “ijsvrij†and “yoghurt†in various forms of handwriting. ...
Digraph has several meanings: directed graph, or digraph Digraph (orthography) Digraph (computing) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...
The Dutch alphabet in 1560. ...
In Spanish crosswords, although ch and ll were once considered one letter each, they fill two squares. Ch is a digraph in the Roman alphabet. ...
LL may stand for: LL is the IATA code for Lineas Aeras Allegro airline LL is the production code for the Doctor Who serial The Evil of the Daleks. ...
Types of clues
Straight or quick In some crosswords, often called straight or quick, the clues are usually simple definitions for the answers. Some clues may feature anagrams, and these are usually explicitly described as such. Often, a straight clue is not in itself sufficient to distinguish between several possible answers (often synonyms), and the solver must make use of checks to establish the correct answer with certainty.
A key point to remember when solving crosswords is that crossword answers and their clues always agree in tense and number. If a clue is in the past tense, then so is the answer: "Traveled on horseback" = rode, never ride. Similarly, "Family members" would be a valid clue for aunts but not uncle. Some clue examples:
- Fill-in-the-blank clues are often the easiest in a puzzle, and a good place to start solving, e.g., "__ Boleyn" = Anne
- Abbreviations, use of foreign language, variant spellings, or other unusual word tricks are indicated in the clue. A crossword creator might choose to clue the answer SEN (as in the abbreviation for "Senator") as "Washington bigwig: Abbr." or "Member of Cong.", with the abbreviation in the clue indicating that the answer is to be similarly abbreviated. The use of "Var." indicates the answer is a variant spelling (e.g., EMEER instead of EMIR), while the use of foreign language or a foreign place name within the clue indicates that the answer is also in a foreign language. For example, ete (French for "summer") might be clued as "Summer, in the Sorbonne" while Roma could be clued as "Italia's capital."
- A question mark at the end of clue usually signals that the clue/answer combination involves some sort of pun, e.g., "Grateful?" = ashes (since a grate might be full of them).
- The clue "PC key" for a three-letter answer could be ESC, ALT, TAB, or even DEL, but until a check is filled in, giving at least one of the letters, the correct answer cannot be determined.
- A common clue is "Compass point", where the desired answer is one of eight possible abbreviations for a position on a compass, i.e. NNW (for north-northwest) or ESE (for east-southeast). The desired answer is determined by a combination of logic — since the third letter can be only E or W, and the second letter can be only N or S — and a process of elimination using checks. Alternatively, compass point answers are often clued as "XXX to YYY direction", where XXX and YYY are two place names. For example, SSW might be clued as "New York to Washington dir." Similarly, a clue such as "right (or left, etc.) on the map" means east.
- Most widely distributed American crosswords today (e.g., The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, etc.) also contain "speech"-like answers, i.e., entries in the puzzle grid that try to replicate our everyday colloquial language. In such a puzzle, one might see phrases such as WHAT'S UP, AS IF, or WHADDYA WANT.
The British-style cryptic crossword puzzle is laden with wordplay, and features a very different type of clue from those listed above. For more details see the dedicated section below. Anne Boleyn, 1st Marchioness of Pembroke[1] (ca. ...
A senate is a deliberative body, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature. ...
Inscription over the entrance to the Sorbonne The front of the Sorbonne Building The name Sorbonne (La Sorbonne) is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions (see below), but this is a recent usage, and Sorbonne has actually...
Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area - City 1,285 km² (580 sq mi) - Urban 5...
Compass in a wooden box A compass (or mariners compass) is a navigational instrument for finding directions on the earth. ...
Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (meaning word, account, reason or principle), is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration. ...
The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ...
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The Boston Globe is the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts and in the greater New England region. ...
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Crossword themes Many American crossword puzzles contain a "theme," consisting of a number of long entries (generally three to five in a standard 15x15-square "weekday"-size puzzle) that share some relationship, type of pun, or other element in common. As an example, the New York Times crossword of April 26, 2005 by Sarah Keller, edited by Will Shortz, featured five theme entries ending in the different parts of a tree: April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (117th in leap years). ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Will Shortz (b. ...
'SQUAREROOT
TABLELEAF
WARDROBETRUNK
BRAINSTEM
BANKBRANCH'
The above is an example of a category theme, where the theme elements are all members of the same set. Other types of themes include quote themes, featuring a famous quote broken up into parts to fit in the grid (and usually clued as "Quote, part 1", "Quote, part 2", etc.); rebus themes, where multiple letters or even symbols occupy a single square in the puzzle (e.g., BERMUDAΔ); pun-based themes (perhaps the most common), where all the answers are similar puns; commemorative themes, based on a particular event or person (often published on an appropriate anniversary); and other less common types.
The Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Series has published many unusual themed crosswords. "Rosetta Stone," by Sam Bellotto Jr., incorporated a Caesar Cipher cryptogram as the theme; the key to breaking the cipher was the answer to 1 Across. Another unusual theme required the solver to use the answer to a clue as another clue. The answer to that clue was the real solution.
Quiz crosswords In quiz crosswords, the clues take the form of questions. These may be on general knowledge or on a single topic.
The first entries In the 'Quick' crossword in the Daily Telegraph newspaper (Sunday and Daily, UK), it has become a convention also to make the first few words (usually two or three, but can be more) into a phrase. For example, "Dimmer, Allies" would make "Demoralise" or "You, ill, never, walk, alone" would become "You'll never walk alone". This generally aids the solver in that if they have one of the words then they can attempt to guess the phrase. This has also become popular among other British newspapers. This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...
Indirect clues In many puzzles, some clues are to be taken metaphorically or in some sense other than their literal meaning, or require some form of lateral thinking. Depending on the puzzle creator or the editor, this might be represented either with a question mark at the end of the clue or with a modifier such as "maybe" or "perhaps". Examples: - The clue "Half a dance?" for a three-letter answer: CAN (half of CANCAN) or CHA (half of CHACHA).
- The clue "Nice summer?" for: ETE, summer in Nice (France), not a nice (=pleasant) summer.
- The clue "Pay addition, perhaps", without the modifier might be something akin to "BONUS". However, with the modifier, the answer could be "OLA" (the addition of OLA to PAY is the word PAYOLA).
Cryptic crosswords -
In cryptic crosswords, often called cryptics, the clues are puzzles in themselves. A typical clue contains a definition at the beginning or end of the clue, and wordplay, which describes the word indicated by the definition, and which may not parse logically, but should be grammatical. Cryptics usually give the length of their answers in parentheses after the clue. Certain signs indicate different wordplay. Cryptics have a steeper "learning curve" than standard crosswords as learning to interpret the different types of cryptic clues can take some practice. In Great Britain, cryptics of varying degrees of difficulty are featured in many newspapers. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
There are several types of wordplay used in cryptics. One is straightforward definition substitution using parts of a word. For example, in one puzzle by Mel Taub, the answer IMPORTANT is given the clue "To bring worker into the country may prove significant". The explanation is that to "import" means "to bring into the country"; the "worker" is a worker ant; and "significant" means "important." Note that in a cryptic clue, there is almost always only one answer that fits both the definition and the wordplay, so that when you see the answer, you know it is the right answer - although it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out why it is the right answer.
A good cryptic clue should provide a fair and exact definition of the answer, while at the same time being deliberately misleading. It is the setter's challenge to mean what he says without necessarily saying what he means - a quandary familiar to those who have enjoyed the writings of Lewis Carroll.
Another type of wordplay used in cryptics is homophones. For example, the clue "A few, we hear, add up (3)" is solved by SUM. The definition is "add up", meaning "totalize". The solver must guess that "we hear" indicates a homophone, and so a homophone of a synonym of "A few" ("SOME") is the answer. Look up homonym in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Another wordplay commonly used is the double meaning. For example, "Cat's tongue (7)" is solved by PERSIAN, since this is a type of cat, as well as a tongue, or language.
Cryptics very often include anagrams. The clue "Ned T.'s seal cooked is rather bland (5,4)" is solved by NEEDS SALT. The meaning is "rather bland", and the word "cooked" is a hint to the solver that this clue is an anagram (the letters have been "cooked", or jumbled up). "Nedtsseal" (ignoring all punctuation, of course) is an anagram for NEEDS SALT. Besides "cooked", other common hints that the clue contains an anagram are words such as "scrambled," "mixed up," "confused," "baked," or "twisted". In answer sheets, an anagram is commonly indicated by an asterisk. An anagram (Greek ana- = back or again, and graphein = to write) is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce other words, using all the original letters exactly once; e. ...
Embedded words are another common trick in cryptics. The clue "Bigotry aside, I'd take him (9)" is solved by APARTHEID. The meaning is "bigotry", and the wordplay explains itself, indicated subtly by the word "take" (since one word "takes" another): "aside" means APART and I'd is simply ID, so APART and ID "take" HE (which is, in cryptic crossword usage, a perfectly good synonym for "him"). The answer could be elucidated as APART(HE)ID.
There is the oft-used hidden clue, where the answer is hidden in the text of the clue itself. For example, "Made a dug-out, buried, and passed away (4)" is solved by DEAD. The answer is written in the clue: "maDE A Dug-out". "Buried" indicates that the answer is embedded within the clue.
There is no end to the wordplay found in cryptic clues. Backwards words can be indicated by words like "climbing", "retreating", or "ascending"; letters can be replaced or removed with indicators such as "nothing rather than excellence" (meaning replace E in a word with O); the letter I can be indicated by "me" or "one;" the letter O can be indicated by "nought" or "a ring" (since it visually resembles one); the letter X might be clued as "a cross", or "ten" (as in the Roman numeral), or "an illiterate's signature", or "sounds like your old flame" (homophone for "ex"). "Senselessness" is solved by "e", because "e" is what remain after removing (less) "ness" from "sense". The system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, and was adapted from Etruscan numerals. ...
With the different types of wordplay and definition possibilities, the composer of a cryptic puzzle is often presented with many different possible ways to clue a given answer. Most desirable are clues that are clean but deceptive, with a smooth surface reading. The Usenet newsgroup rec.puzzles.crosswords has a number of clueing competitions where contestants all submit clues for the same word and a judge picks the best one. Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...
In principle, each cryptic clue is usually sufficient to define its answer uniquely, so it should be possible to answer each clue without use of the grid. In practice, the use of checks is an important aid to the solver. (Cryptic crosswords are not to be confused with cryptograms, a different form of puzzle based on a substitution cipher.) For the plants which reproduce by using spores, see Cryptogam. ...
In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encryption by which units of plaintext are substituted with ciphertext according to a regular system; the units may be single letters (the most common), pairs of letters, triplets of letters, mixtures of the above, and so forth. ...
Double clue lists Sometimes newspapers publish one grid that can be filled by solving either of two lists of clues - usually a straight and a cryptic. The solutions given by the two lists may be different, in which case the solver must decide at the outset which list they are going to follow, or the solutions may be identical, in which case the straight clues offer additional help for a solver having difficulty with the cryptic clues. For example, the solution APARTHEID might be clued as "Bigotry aside, I'd take him (9)" in the cryptic list, and "Racial separation (9)" in the straight list.
Every issue of GAMES Magazine contains a large crossword with a double clue list, under the title The World's Most Ornery Crossword; both lists are straight and arrive at the same solution, but one list is significantly more challenging than the other. The solver is prompted to fold a page in half, showing the grid and the hard clues; the easy clues are tucked inside the fold, to be referenced if the solver gets stuck. GAMES Magazine (ISSN 0199-9788) is a United States-based magazine devoted to games and puzzles, and is published by GAMES Publications, a division of Kappa Publishing Group. ...
A variant of the double-clue list is commonly called Siamese Twins: two matching grids are provided, and the two clue lists are merged together such that the two clues for each entry are displayed together in random order. Determining which clue is to be applied to which grid is part of the puzzle.
Other clue variations Any type of puzzle may contain cross-references, where the answer to one clue forms part of another clue, in which it is referred to by number.
When an answer is composed of multiple or hyphenated words, some crosswords (especially in Britain) indicate the structure of the answer. For example, "(3,5)" after a clue indicates that the answer is composed of a three-letter word followed by a five-letter word.
Example Here is a small example of a regular crossword, to illustrate the format:
Across 1. Sheep sound (3)
3. Neither liquid nor gas (5)
5. Humour (3)
Down 1. Road passenger transport (3)
2. Permit (5)
4. Shortened form of Dorothy (3)
The solution to this crossword is:
| 1B | 9A | 2A | . | . | | 9U | . | 9L | . | . | | 3S | 9O | 9L | 9I | 4D | | . | . | 9O | . | 9O | | . | . | 5W | 9I | 9T | A set of cryptic clues that provide the same answers as above might be:
Across 1. Start of announcement by British Airways sounds woolly? (3)
3. I sold out for real (5)
5. Wilde's intelligence (3)
Down 1. Ferry sees submarine rising (3)
2. Now without its initial after every warrant (5)
4. Do time? There's a point (3)
How the clues work:
Across
- 1. start of announcement = A; by = next to; British Airways = BA. Result is BA+A = BAA.
- 3. 'out' commonly implies an anagram (as in turned out). An anagram of I SOLD = SOLID, which means real.
- 5. Double-definition: (Oscar) Wilde was a famous wit, and intelligence=wit. "Wilde's" in this case is a contraction of "Wilde is", and not a possessive. Also see (a) below.
Down Look up Wit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
- 1. submarine = SUB; rising = backwards (in view of this being a Down clue). Result is BUS, as a verb, meaning to ferry.
- 2. Now without its initial = OW; after = following; every = ALL. Result = ALL+OW = ALLOW, meaning to warrant.
- 4. Do = DO; time = T. Result = DO+T = DOT, meaning a point.
NOTES:
a) The clue 5-Across would be disallowed in U.S. cryptics, with the sole exception of Frank Lewis's puzzles in The Nation, which do allow occasional non-cryptic clues in order to throw the solver an occasional curveball. For a U.S. cryptic, the clue could be something like "In Brooklyn, having this can be funny". (Explanation: Having = definition of WITH; In Brooklyn = instruction to write WITH as it is said with a Brooklyn accent, = WIT; this can be funny = definition of WIT.
Major crossword 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 Published under various trade names (including Code Breakers, Code Crackers, and Kaidoku), and not to be confused with cryptic crosswords (ciphertext puzzles are commonly known as cryptograms), a cipher crossword replaces the clues for each entry with clues for each white cell of the grid - a number 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. Cipher crosswords are always pangrammatic (all letters of the alphabet appear in the solution). 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. Given their pangrammaticity, a frequent start point is locating where 'Q' and 'U' must appear. For the plants which reproduce by using spores, see Cryptogam. ...
This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. ...
Look up pangram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
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 black 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 black 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.
A variation is the Blankout puzzle in the Daily Mail Weekend magazine. The clues are not individually numbered, but given in terms of the rows and columns of the grid, which has rectangular symmetry. The list of clues gives hints of the locations of some of the black squares even before one starts solving them, e.g. there must be a black square where a row having no clues intersects a column having no clues. The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper first published in 1896. ...
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.
Crossnumbers A crossnumber (also known as a cross-figure) 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. A cross-figure is a puzzle similar to a crossword in structure, but with entries which consist of numbers rather than words, with individual digits being entered in the blank cells. ...
Arithmetic tables for children, Lausanne, 1835 Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αÏιθμός = number) is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple daily counting to advanced science and business calculations. ...
General knowledge is a term used, usually in quizzes, to describe a fact or question that does not fit into any proscribed topic (e. ...
The Daily Mail Weekend magazine used to feature crossnumbers under the misnomer Number Word. This kind of puzzle should not be confused with a different puzzle that the Daily Mail refers to as Cross Number. The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper first published in 1896. ...
History
Americans began doing crosswords in 1913 On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a Liverpool journalist, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the genre as we know it. This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of the puzzle was changed to "crossword." New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz has also summarized the birth of the crossword puzzle. Celebrate the Century stamp - First crossword puzzle This image is a postage stamp produced by the United States Postal Service after 1978. ...
Celebrate the Century stamp - First crossword puzzle This image is a postage stamp produced by the United States Postal Service after 1978. ...
December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Arthur Wynne (1862 - 1945), born Liverpool, England, was a British editor and puzzle constructor in his home country and the United States of America. ...
The New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. ...
Will Shortz (b. ...
Crossword puzzles became a regular weekly feature in the World. The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, published by Simon and Schuster. The book was an instant hit and crossword puzzles became the craze of 1924. The term crossword first appeared in a dictionary in 1930. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 292 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (300 × 615 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/png) The first crossword puzzle, created by Arthur Wynne, published in the New York World on December 21, 1913. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 292 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (300 × 615 pixel, file size: 103 KB, MIME type: image/png) The first crossword puzzle, created by Arthur Wynne, published in the New York World on December 21, 1913. ...
Arthur Wynne (1862 - 1945), born Liverpool, England, was a British editor and puzzle constructor in his home country and the United States of America. ...
December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Jean-François Millet Le Semeur (The Sower) Simon & Schuster logo, circa 1961. ...
Today, there are many popular crosswords distributed in American newspapers and online. The most prestigious (and among the most difficult to solve) are the New York Times puzzles, which have been running continuously since 1942. The first editor of the Times crossword was Margaret Farrar, who was editor from 1942 to 1969. She was succeeded by Will Weng, who was succeeded by Eugene T. Maleska. Since 1993, they have been edited by Will Shortz, the fourth crossword editor in Times. In 1978 Shortz founded and still directs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Margaret Petherbridge Farrar (March 23, 1897 – June 11, 1984) was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for the New York Times. ...
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is an annual crossword-solving tournament held every March. ...
Simon and Schuster continues to publish the Crossword Series books that it began in 1924, currently under the editorship of John M. Samson.
The British cryptic crossword was imported to the US in 1968 by composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in New York magazine. Until 2006, the Atlantic Monthly regularly featured a cryptic crossword "puzzler" by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, which combines cryptic clues with diabolically ingenious variations on the construction of the puzzle itself. In both cases, no two puzzles are alike in construction, and the intent of the puzzle authors is to entertain with novelty, not to establish new variations of the crossword genre. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Headquarters New York magazine is a weekly magazine, founded in 1968, concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. ...
The Atlantic Monthly (also known as The Atlantic) is an American literary/cultural magazine that was founded in November 1857. ...
Emily Cox is a puzzle writer. ...
Henry Rathvon is a puzzle writer. ...
In the United Kingdom, the Sunday Express was the first newspaper to publish a crossword on November 2, 1924, a Wynne puzzle adapted for the UK. The first crossword in Britain, according to Tony Augarde in his "Oxford Guide to Word Games" (1984), was in "Pearson's Magazine" for February 1922. Several crossword experts were recruited into code-breaking activities during World War II at Bletchley Park in England. The Daily Express is a British newspaper, currently tabloid, and it is owned by Richard Desmond. ...
November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 59 days remaining. ...
1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
During World War II, codebreakers at Bletchley Park solved messages from a large number of Axis code and cipher systems, including the German Enigma machine. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem God Save the King (Queen) England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification - by Athelstan 967 Area...
Crossword puzzles in World War II In 1944 Allied security officers were disturbed by the appearance, in a series of crosswords in The Daily Telegraph, of words that were secret code names for military operations planned as part of Operation Overlord. "Utah" (the code name for one of the landing sites) appeared in a puzzle on May 2, 1944. Subsequent puzzles included the landing site "Omaha" and "Mulberry"; the secret artificial harbours. The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between the German forces occupying Western Europe and the invading Allies. ...
May 2 is the 122nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (123rd in leap years). ...
1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
On June 2, four days before the invasion, the puzzle included both "Neptune" (the naval operations plan) and "Overlord". The author of the puzzles, a schoolteacher named Leonard Dawe, was arrested and interrogated. The investigators concluded that the appearance of the words was a coincidence, as a result of stationed troops in the region mentioning the phrases in passing, which Dawe's schoolchildren repeated. The event has been described in histories, and has been used as an illustration of how seemingly meaningful events can arise out of pure coincidence. June 2 is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining. ...
Combatants United States United Kingdom Canada Free France Poland Germany Commanders Dwight Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander) Bernard Montgomery (land) Bertram Ramsay (sea) Trafford Leigh-Mallory (air) Omar Bradley (US 1st Army) Miles Dempsey (UK 2nd Army) Harry Crerar (Canadian 1st Army) Gerd von Rundstedt (OB WEST) Erwin Rommel (Heeresgruppe B...
According to National Geographic[1], in 1984 a former student of Dawe's claimed that he had picked up the words while eavesdropping on soldiers' conversations around the army camps and suggested them to Dawe to use in puzzles. This assertion has not been independently verified, and Marc Romano, author of the book Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession, gives a number of reasons for why the story is implausible. The National Geographic Society was founded in the USA on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. ...
Cryptologists for Bletchley Park were selected, among other means, by timed cryptic crosswords. During World War II, codebreakers at Bletchley Park solved messages from a large number of Axis code and cipher systems, including the German Enigma machine. ...
According to Guinness Records, 15th May 2007, the most prolific crossword compiler is Roger Squires of Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK. On 14th May 2007 he published his 66,666th crossword, equivalent to 2 million clues. He is one of only four setters to have provided cryptic puzzles to The Times, the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Independent. He also holds the record for the longest word ever used in a published crossword - the 58-letter Welsh town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch clued as an anagram.[citation needed] Roger Squires of Ironbridge, Shropshire is a crossword compiler who has had a world record 2 million clues published. ...
The village, seen from the bridge Ironbridge is a settlement beside the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England. ...
Shropshire (alternatively Salop or abbreviated Shrops) is an English county in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. ...
The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ...
This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...
The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...
The Financial Times (FT) is an international business newspaper printed on distinctive salmon pink broadsheet paper. ...
For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation). ...
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 Letters long) is a village on the island of Anglesey in Wales, situated on the Menai Strait close to Menai Bridge and Bangor. ...
Crosswords in non-English languages Although the crossword is an English-language invention and most common in English-speaking countries, other countries have crosswords in their respective languages.
French-language crosswords are smaller than English-language ones, and not necessarily square: usually 8–13 rows and columns, totaling 81–130 squares. They need not be symmetric and two-letter words are allowed, unlike in most English-language puzzles. Compilers strive to minimize use of black squares. 10% is typical; Georges Perec compiled many 9×9 grids for Le Point with four or even three [2]. Rather than numbering the individual clues, the rows and columns are numbered as on a chessboard. All clues for a given row or column are listed, against its number, as separate sentences. This is similar to the notation used in the aforementioned Daily Mail Blankout puzzles. Image of artist Georges Perec (March 7, 1936 - March 3, 1982) was a 20th century French novelist, filmmaker and essayist, a member of the Oulipo group and considered by many to be one of the most important post-WWII authors. ...
This article needs to be wikified. ...
Chessboard Chessboard with Staunton chess pieces A chessboard is often painted or engraved on a chess table. ...
The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper first published in 1896. ...
In Italy, crosswords are usually oblong and larger than French ones, 13x21 being a common size. As in France, they usually are not symmetrical; two-letter words are allowed; and the number of black squares is minimized. Nouns (including surnames) and the infinitive or past participle of verbs are allowed, as are abbreviations; in larger crosswords, it is customary to put at the center of the grid phrases made of two to four words, or forenames and surnames. A variant of Italian crosswords does not use black squares: words are delimited by thickening the grid. Another variant starts with a blank grid: the solver must insert both the answers and the black squares, and Across and Down clues are ordered by row and column.
Particularly curious is the Japanese language crossword; due to 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 rather small in comparison to those of other languages. Any second Yōon characters are treated as a full syllable and is rarely written with a smaller character. Even cipher crosswords have a Japanese equivalent, although pangrammaticity does not apply. The crossword with kanji to fill in are also produced, but in far smaller number as it takes far more effort to construct one. Despite having three writing forms, hiragana, katakana and kanji, they are rarely mixed in a crossword puzzle. Japanese ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people, mainly in Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. ...
Katakana ) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet. ...
YÅon (拗音) is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added y sound. ...
Japanese writing Kanji Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana ManyÅgana Uses Furigana Okurigana RÅmaji ) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮å), katakana (片仮å), and the Arabic numerals. ...
Japanese writing Kanji Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana ManyÅgana Uses Furigana Okurigana RÅmaji Hiragana ) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana and kanji; the Latin alphabet is also used in some cases. ...
In Poland, crosswords typically use British-style grids, but some do not have black cells. Black cells are often replaced by boxes with clues - such crosswords are called Swedish puzzles or Swedish-style crosswords. In a vast majority of Polish crosswords, nouns are the only allowed words.
Modern Hebrew is normally written with only the consonants; vowels are either understood, or entered as diacritical marks. This can lead to ambiguities in the entry of some words, and compilers generally specify that answers are to be entered in "ktav male" ("full spelling, ie with vowels) or "ktav haser" ("deficient spelling", without vowels). Further, since Hebrew is written from right to left, but Roman numerals are used and written from left to right, there can be an ambiguity in the description of lengths of entries, particularly for multi-word phrases. Different compilers and publications use differing conventions for both of these issues. The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ...
In India A.N.Prahlada Rao from Bangalore has composed 18,000 crossword puzzles in Kannada, including 4,500 crosswords based on Kannada films.[citation needed] , Bangalore (proposed to be renamed Bengaluru) (Kannada: ; pronunciation: in Kannada and in English) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. ...
Kannada (ಕನà³à²¨à²¡ ) is one of the major Dravidian languages of southern India and one of the oldest languages in India. ...
Notation A notation has evolved to allow crosswords to be rendered compactly, and enjoyed by the blind or partially sighted. Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or psychological factors. ...
Visual impairment or vision impairment is vision loss that constitutes a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that cannot be corrected by conventional means, including refractive correction, medication, or surgery. ...
It consists of giving the locations of the black squares in each row as letters (A=1,B=2, etc.), e.g. for the example crossword above:
- D E
- B D E
-
- A B D
- A B
Although the numbering scheme could be consistently applied from this information, it is customary to quote the starting square of each clue in (number-letter) format. There are many different numbering schemes for assigning numbers to entities. ...
Computational complexity The construction of crossword puzzles is an NP-complete problem. In complexity theory, the NP-complete problems are the most difficult problems in NP, in the sense that they are the ones most likely not to be in P. The reason is that if you could find a way to solve an NP-complete problem quickly, then you could use...
See also Puzzles commonly called the numerical equivalent of a crossword: Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film about Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. ...
Crosswordese is a term generally used to describe words frequently found in crossword puzzles but seldom found in everyday conversation. ...
Board games based on the crossword concept: Easy Cross Sums puzzle Cross Sums is a kind of logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical transliteration of the crossword. ...
A sudoku puzzle. ...
Aids to solve crosswords include: The verb to scrabble also means to scratch, scramble or scrape about: see Wiktionary:scrabble. ...
A finished Upwords game. ...
The dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ...
Biographical dictionaries — a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information — have been written in many languages. ...
A rhyming dictionary is a specialist dictionary designed for use in writing poetry. ...
A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary, an important reference for information about places and place-names (see: toponomy), used in conjunction with an atlas. ...
This article or section includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...
An almanac (also spelled almanack, especially in Commonwealth English) is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. ...
The word thesaurus is derived from 16th century New Latin, in turn from Latin thesaurus, from ancient Greek thesauros, store-house, treasury. Besides its meaning as a treasury or storehouse, it more commonly means a listing of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings (this new meaning of thesaurus dates...
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