Somewhat ironically, The New York Times complains that crosswords are a “sinful waste” in which solvers “get nothing out of it except a primitive form of mental exercise, and success or failure in any given attempt is equally irrelevant to mental development.” ( The New York Times will later become famous for its top-notch crosswords.) There are a huge number of crossword puzzles you can choose from, ranging from introductory challenges all the way up to expert-level tests. That includes crisscross puzzles and specialized puzzle types and custom formats that are only available via a subscription. Anagram Clues: Anagram clues give a clue to an answer that must be rearranged to form the word that the solver must fill in. For example, the clue might be "Rearrange the letters to find a type of fish" and the answer could be "SALMON." Containers imply that you’ll need to insert a word inside of another word, usually indicated in the clue by words like “within” or “surrounding.” Depending on the difficulty and the specific newspaper editor, you might find cryptic crossword clues with weird traits like these:

Question marks often imply wordplay or puns. Usually, crossword clues are written with no punctuation at all, so if you see a question mark, it implies that the answer won’t be as straightforward as you’d think. Think of puns, wordplay, homonyms, and less-obvious answers.

Score for ULTIMATE

USA Today Crossword: Besides free crosswords, USA Today also offers other games, like sudoku and mahjong. The world’s first known crossword puzzle was created by British-born journalist Arthur Wynne and published in the New York World newspaper in 1913. His puzzle featured in the “Fun” section of the paper. Diagonal Crosswords: Diagonal crosswords are similar to standard crosswords, but the words in the puzzle run diagonally as well as horizontally and vertically. This adds an extra level of challenge to the puzzle. The most important tip is to practice. Max Deutsch took a month to master the Saturday New York Times crossword, and it required consistent practice, about 46 hours in total. He used a lot of memorization with letter training, memorizing crossword answers and clue pairings and completing a sizable number of puzzles. Practice is a huge piece of the puzzle but not the only piece, as harder puzzles like cryptic crosswords require divergent and flexible thinking.

And our games let you keep a monthly points score, so you can see how your performance is developing and challenge yourself to keep on improving. Will Shortz, the famed crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times, begins his career. The next few decades are sometimes referred to by crossword fans as “the Shortz era.” Additionally, you can reveal the answers for the whole crossword puzzle, individual words, or even certain letters. Matt Gaffney likes to start with the theme and then use a divide-and-conquer approach to create his crosswords.

Themed crosswords from contributors

Cryptic crosswords are like normal crosswords, but the clues tend to involve wordplay and also have very convoluted, intentionally confusing hints. If you’re doing a cryptic crossword, know that the definition is typically hiding in plain sight, and don’t lose heart!

Deletions involve deleting one or two letters to get a different answer. For instance, “mend” minus a letter could be “end” or “men.”When solving a crossword puzzle, it's often helpful to start with the clues that are easiest to answer. Here are a few types of clues that you might want to consider starting with: Wynne called his creation a Word-Cross Puzzle and it was inspired by a range of word puzzles. What made his contribution unique was the introduction of vertical and horizontal lines that gave people boxes to input letters. Did you know that you can actually submit your crosswords to be published? If you’re feeling confident, you can submit your finished, formatted puzzle to places like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or Simon & Schuster. Look for anagrams, where you simply need to rearrange letters to find the answer. For instance, “cash trims” would be “Christmas.”

Many editors like homophones, which are words that sound like other words but are spelled differently. “Their,” “they’re,” and “there” are homophones. Clues that cross other clues: Clues that cross other clues, meaning that the answer intersects with the answers of other clues, can provide additional information that can help you solve other clues as well. Crossword puzzles are the perfect way to put your vocabulary skills and logical thinking to the test. They ask you to reach into your word bank, decipher clues, and build connections between letters. Word Search Crosswords: Word search crosswords are a combination of a traditional crossword puzzle and a word search. The puzzle features a grid of letters, and the solver must find words in the grid and then fill in the answers in a separate crossword puzzle. Map out your grid. If you’re using a simple or free crossword-maker, you can move on to creating your list of clues. If you want to create an in-depth, professional-looking crossword, you’ll want to map out your grid first before moving onto the next step. Professional grids are typically in symmetrical squares; The New York Times crosswords are typically 15 squares by 15 squares.Master “crosswordese.” Learn some of the most commonly used crossword answers. See if you can fit any of the “crosswordiest” words, or words not found in everyday speech but often used in crosswords, in your puzzle. Consider abbreviations carefully. If a clue is abbreviated, the answer will likely be, too. Memorize popular abbreviations, including names of events like WWI, military abbreviations like NCO, and titles like Mr. and Ms. Also memorize common suffixes, as they’re quite popular among crossword writers.