Crossword

How to play Crossword

Crossword is a classic pen-and-paper word puzzle brought to your browser. You are given a grid of white squares and two lists of clues — one for the Across answers that read left to right, and one for the Down answers that read top to bottom. Every white square belongs to an Across word, a Down word, or both, so the letters interlock: the answer you write across shares squares with the answers running down through it. Solve one clue and you hand yourself free letters for the words that cross it. This version ships compact, hand-built puzzles at three sizes, times your solve, and turns your speed into a ranked score. It runs entirely in your browser, so you can play as many rounds as you like — online or off.

The goal

Fill every white square with a letter so that each Across answer and each Down answer matches its clue. There is exactly one correct letter for every square, because each square is shared by the crossing words. The puzzle is finished — and you win — the moment every square holds its correct letter. There is no penalty for a wrong guess: an incorrect letter simply keeps the puzzle unsolved until you fix it.

The grid and the clues

White squares need a letter; any dark squares are blocked and stay empty (the small mini-puzzles here are usually completely filled). Small numbers sit in the corners of squares that start a word, and the same number is used by the Across and Down clue that begin there. The clue list is split into an Across section and a Down section, and each clue shows the length of its answer in parentheses so you know how many letters to fit. Tap any clue to jump straight to its first square.

Controls

• Click or tap a square to focus it. The squares of the current word are tinted yellow and the focused square is highlighted in orange, so you always see which answer you are typing.
• Click the same square again to switch between Across and Down. This is how you move from filling a horizontal answer to filling the vertical answer that crosses it.
• Type a letter on your keyboard: it lands in the focused square and the focus moves to the next square of the current word automatically.
• Press Backspace to erase. If the current square already has a letter it is cleared in place; if it is empty, the focus steps back and clears the previous square.
• Use the arrow keys to move around the grid, and press Tab to flip between Across and Down without clicking.
• On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen letter buttons under the grid; the ⌫ key is Backspace. Tapping a clue in the Across or Down list jumps to its first square.

Difficulty levels

• Easy — 3×3 grids built from very common three-letter words, with a fresh set of Across and Down clues.
• Medium — 4×4 grids using common four-letter words; each direction has its own clue wording.
• Hard — 4×4 grids with trickier vocabulary and more roundabout clues, for solvers who want a challenge.

Winning and scoring

You win as soon as every square contains the correct letter — the puzzle recognises the finished grid automatically; there is no separate “check” button to press. Your solve time is turned into points using the formula score = max(1, 10000 − seconds × 5), then capped to the leaderboard range of 1 to 99,999. Because faster solving means fewer seconds subtracted, a quicker finish earns a higher score. Scores are tracked separately for each difficulty, so your best Easy time competes only with other Easy times. Sign in to send your best result to the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Start with the clues you are most sure of. Every letter you place is also a letter in a crossing word, so a single confident answer immediately narrows down two or three others.
• When a clue stumps you, look at the crossing answers instead. If you already have a couple of the crossing letters in place, the shape of the word often gives the answer away even when the clue does not.
• Mind the length shown in parentheses. Knowing an answer is exactly three or four letters rules out longer synonyms and helps you pick the right form of a word.
• Solved words are crossed out in the clue list, so glance at what is left to decide where to attack next. Fill the most constrained squares — the ones touched by answers you already know — first.

Languages

The whole interface — buttons, the status line, difficulty labels and this guide — is translated into all seven supported languages. The clues themselves are written in English, because a crossword answer and its clue are one puzzle: they are word content rather than interface text, so they are kept in their original language just like a word list. If you are still building your English vocabulary, the very common words in the Easy grids make a friendly place to start.

Frequently asked questions