Crossword resource

Everything you need to finish the puzzle.

Plain-language guides, a beginner course, and a reference library for the conventions, abbreviations and clue types that show up again and again.

24guides and lessons

12lessons in the beginner course

98glossary entries

Start here: the beginner course

All 12 lessons

01How a crossword grid worksSymmetry, numbering and checked squares explained. The grid tells you most of what you need before you read a single clue. 02Reading the clue: enumeration, part of speech and tenseA clue and its answer must be interchangeable. Matching number, tense and part of speech rules out most wrong answers before any crossing arrives. 03Fill words: the short answers that appear in almost every puzzleETUI, OLEO, ESNE and forty more. Why grids need these short words, how they are clued, and the fastest way to learn them. 04When you stall: a repeatable order of attackA half finished grid that has stopped moving is a structural problem, not a vocabulary one. Here is the checklist that unblocks it.

Solving guides

Written for the moment you are stuck, not for the archive. Browse all guides

ReferenceWhy crosswords are the best exercise for your brainThe case for the daily crossword in eight parts, with the research described as researchers describe it: associations that suggest a benefit, not a cure.6 min TechniqueSolve the crossings first: a working order for any gridA five-step working order for any crossword: read everything first, take the long entries early, finish your densest corner, and doubt the answer you trust most.5 min CrypticSpotting the definition in a cryptic clueEvery cryptic clue defines its answer at one end or the other. Here is how to find which end, before you understand a single letter of the wordplay.5 min ReferenceCrossword abbreviations, sorted by what they stand forMore than 120 crossword abbreviations grouped by family: compass points, Roman numerals, elements, ranks, sport, music, dates, places and Latin shorthand.6 min CrypticAnagram indicators: the words that signal a shuffleA categorised list of more than a hundred anagram indicators, plus how a clue signals which letters you are meant to rearrange.5 min

Glossary

Browse the full glossary

Checked letter

A square shared by an Across answer and a Down answer, so it can be confirmed from two directions. Checked squares are what make a crossword self correcting.

Enumeration

The figures in brackets after a clue, giving the length of the answer and how it divides into words. Standard in British puzzles and absent from American ones.

Fill

The set of answers a constructor puts into a grid. Good fill favours lively words and phrases and keeps obscure entries to the smallest number the grid allows.

Indicator

A word or phrase telling you which operation to perform on letters in the clue. Every cryptic device except the double definition has its own family of indicators.

Nina

A hidden message worked into a grid, often along an edge or a diagonal, that the clues never mention. Named after the daughter of the cartoonist Al Hirschfeld.

Setter

The British word for the person who writes a crossword, particularly a cryptic. Setters usually publish under a pseudonym and develop a style regular solvers learn to recognise.

One clue technique, every Sunday

A short email with one device, three worked examples, and a puzzle to try.