Crossword glossary

A shortened form used as an answer or as a building block inside wordplay. Clues flag one with words such as briefly, for short, in brief or a shortened word.

A clue whose answer is written from left to right. Across and Down entries share one run of numbers, assigned to every square that begins an entry.

A puzzle in which the first letters of the answers spell an author and title, and the answer letters transfer into a second grid to reveal a quotation.

A device that reads every second letter of a word or phrase in the clue. Signalled by regularly, oddly, evenly, occasionally or at intervals.

A device in which the letters of words given in the clue are rearranged to spell the answer. An indicator word tells you that the shuffle is required.

Solvers' shorthand for an anagram indicator, the word that signals a rearrangement. Words suggesting damage, motion, cooking, drink or disorder are the usual candidates.

A clue in which the whole text works twice, once as wordplay and once as the definition. The name is short for 'and literally so', and good examples are rare.

A grid with the clues printed inside the squares, each with an arrow showing which way its answer runs. Common in European magazines and holiday collections.

A setting that marks every wrong letter as you type it. It removes the need to doubt your own entries, which is the skill a stalled corner would otherwise teach.

A grid with no black squares, where thick bars between cells mark the ends of entries. Common in advanced cryptics such as the Azed and Listener series.

Describing a grid that marks the ends of entries with bars instead of black squares. Barred puzzles are more heavily checked and usually carry a harder vocabulary.

A filled square separating entries in a blocked grid. Editors limit how many a puzzle may use and forbid patterns that cut the grid into unconnected regions.

Solving with no aids at all: no check, no reveal, no dictionary and no search. This is the tournament standard and the honest measure of progress.

A grid in which black squares separate the entries. This is the standard shape for American dailies and for most British blocked puzzles, cryptic and quick alike.

A device that builds the answer from shorter pieces joined in the order the clue gives them, like beads threaded on a string.

A black square that could be removed without changing the number of entries. Constructors add them in symmetrical pairs to make a stubborn corner fillable.

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.

A function in solving apps that tests the letters you have entered and marks the wrong ones. It changes what the puzzle is testing, so decide in advance whether to use it.

Squares marked with a circle to pick out letters that spell something when read in order. The puzzle may explain what they mean or leave you to see it.

The printed clues, grouped into Across and Down and ordered by number. Reading the whole list once before writing anything is a standard opening move.

The figure printed in a grid square and beside the clue that belongs to it. Numbers run left to right and top to bottom across every square that starts an entry.

A grid in which every letter has been replaced by a number, with a few letters given to start. You solve by deduction about letter patterns rather than from clues.

A clue in which the answer, combined with other letters the clue supplies, anagrams into a word or phrase the clue names. You work backwards to the answer.

The British name for a straight definition puzzle, often printed beside the cryptic in the same paper. Clues are short synonyms and points of general knowledge.

The American word for the person who builds a crossword: the grid, the fill and the clues. British papers call the same person the setter.

A device in which one group of letters is placed inside another. Words such as in, held by, around, swallowing and outside point to it.

A clue that points to another entry instead of defining its own answer. You need the referenced answer first, so these are usually worth leaving until later.

A square where an Across answer and a Down answer share a letter, and by extension the other answer that supplies it. Crossings are the engine of solving.

Words that appear far more often in crosswords than in speech, usually because their letters fit awkward slots. Learning the common ones is the fastest gain a new solver can make.

A clue with no separable wordplay, made instead of one misleading definition that reads one way and means another. It often closes with a question mark.

A crossword in which every clue carries a definition and a separate piece of wordplay, both leading to the same answer. Standard in Britain, Ireland, Australia and India.

The part of a cryptic clue that means the same as the answer. It sits at one end of the clue, never in the middle, and matches the answer in part of speech and number.

A device that removes one or more letters from a word before the remainder is used. Beheaded, endless, heartless and curtailed are typical signals.

A clue made of two separate definitions of the same answer and nothing else. The two senses are usually unrelated, which is where the surprise comes from.

A clue whose answer is written from top to bottom. In a fully checked grid every letter of a Down answer is also a letter of some Across answer.

The repetition of a word between a clue and its answer, or between two parts of the same clue. Editors treat a dupe as a fault and rewrite around it.

The person who commissions, tests and revises puzzles before publication. Editors adjust clues for fairness and difficulty and hold a paper's house style steady across many setters.

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.

A clue with a blank standing in for the answer inside a phrase, title or quotation. These are the easiest clues in most puzzles and the best place to begin.

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.

The letters a device operates on, most often those to be anagrammed. Fodder must appear in the clue in full, because fair cryptics do not use indirect anagrams.

An answer you are confident enough to write in ink, which then supplies letters to everything crossing it. One reliable foothold is worth several guesses.

A theme the puzzle never announces. Related entries sit in the grid with ordinary clues and no revealer, so most solvers finish without noticing it.

The pattern of white and black squares, or white squares and bars, that a puzzle is entered into. Grid shape decides how much help the crossings give.

A device in which the answer sits unbroken inside the clue, running across the boundary between words. Signals include some of, part of, held by, in and within.

A device in which the answer sounds like another word. Signalled by phrases such as we hear, reportedly, said, aloud or on the radio.

A hyphen in an enumeration showing that the answer is hyphenated. The grid marks the break with a small bar between squares rather than giving it a cell.

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.

A device that takes the first letters of consecutive words in the clue. Initially, first, leaders of and heads of are the usual signals.

An oversized crossword, typically 23x23 or larger, published at weekends or in holiday editions. It has more entries, not necessarily harder clues.

A theme device in which a short word supplies every distinct letter of a longer entry, each letter available as often as the longer word needs it.

The looser school of cryptic clueing, which allows indicators and constructions that Ximenean rules reject, provided the solver can still see the joke and reach the answer.

The white squares of a grid, and by extension the answers that fill them. Setters and editors speak of a grid having a given number of lights.

A small word joining definition to wordplay, such as is, makes, gives, for or in. It has to be honest about which half produces which.

Solvers' name for a hidden word clue, from the way the answer lurks in plain sight inside the text of the clue itself.

A puzzle sized between a mini and a full daily grid, often 7x7 or 9x9. Some papers publish one at weekends beside the standard crossword.

A small daily puzzle, usually 5x5, with straight clues and no theme. A mini takes a minute or two and makes a good daily habit for a new solver.

A crossing of two answers a reasonable solver could not be expected to know, where neither entry helps the other. Named after a town that appeared in one such crossing.

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.

A word or phrase that reads the same in both directions. Clues hint at one with phrases about going either way or coming back unchanged.

A grid whose fill uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. Noticing one tells you that rare letters such as J, Q, X and Z are in play.

A clue whose answer is a fragment of a longer phrase, marked by a blank. American editors allow them sparingly and cap their length at five letters.

Solving on paper in pencil so that wrong answers can be taken out again. The habit encourages marking uncertain entries lightly rather than committing to them.

A weekend puzzle entered into a draw, with the answers published some days later. A prize puzzle is usually a step harder than the same paper's daily.

The pen name a setter publishes under, usually a single word in British broadsheets. Regular solvers learn the habits that go with each name and adjust their expectations.

A mark closing a clue to warn that the definition is a pun, a stretch or a piece of wordplay rather than a straight synonym.

A puzzle with straight definition clues and no wordplay. Answers depend on synonyms and general knowledge rather than on letter manipulation.

The Guardian's weekly cryptic pitched at beginners and at solvers in a hurry. The devices are the standard ones, but vocabulary and surfaces are kept simple.

A single cell holding a multi-letter string or a symbol. Both crossing entries read through the same string, which is how you confirm what belongs there.

A device in which one square holds more than one letter, or a symbol standing for a word. Solving apps let you type the whole string into a single cell.

The clue, usually the last long one, that states the theme in plain words. Once you have it, the other theme entries become much easier to see.

A function that fills in a letter, a word or the whole grid for you. Revealing one crossing letter is a much smaller step than revealing a complete answer.

A device in which a group of letters is read backwards. In Down clues the signal may mean upward, since the answer rises through the grid.

The usual crossword symmetry: turn the grid through 180 degrees and the black squares fall in the same places. Mirror and diagonal symmetry appear less often.

The answer a constructor places first and builds the rest of the grid around, usually a long lively phrase worth the trouble it causes elsewhere.

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.

A puzzle whose grid is only partly drawn. You deduce where the black squares and the clue numbers belong as you solve, using the grid's symmetry as a guide.

An entry that runs the full width or height of the grid. Spanners are hard to fill cleanly, so they usually carry the theme or a showpiece phrase.

Solving against the clock on familiar puzzle types. It trains pattern recognition and quick recall of common fill rather than patient reasoning.

A device that swaps the opening sounds of two words. The clue names Spooner, so the signal is never hidden from the solver.

Two or more long entries placed directly above one another, so every crossing letter has to serve both. Stacks are the hardest part of a grid to fill well.

A run of consecutive days completed in a puzzle app. Streaks encourage daily practice, but they also tempt solvers to check and reveal in order to protect the number.

A device that removes the letters of one named word from another, rather than deleting a single letter from an end or a middle.

The large weekend American crossword, usually 21x21 and always themed. Its difficulty sits around Thursday level, so the challenge is length rather than trickery.

The everyday sense of a clue read as an ordinary sentence. A good surface hides the grammar of the wordplay behind a plausible scene.

The property that leaves a grid pattern unchanged under a set transformation. Published grids are almost always symmetrical, a convention of craft rather than an aid to solving.

Someone who solves a puzzle before publication to catch unfair clues, wrong enumerations and unintended second answers. Most editors use several for every puzzle.

A puzzle built with no theme, where the interest lies in long lively entries and open grid patterns. Late week American dailies are usually themeless.

The idea shared by a puzzle's longest entries, such as a pun pattern, a category or a hidden phrase. Spotting it early turns the remaining long answers into free letters.

A competitive solving event run against the clock, usually with puzzles written for the occasion. The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the largest of them.

Three long entries in consecutive rows, all crossing the same set of Down answers. A triple stack of fifteen letter entries is a display piece in American construction.

A square used by only one entry, so no crossing confirms it. British blocked grids leave roughly half the letters of a long entry unchecked, and solvers call them unches.

An advanced cryptic with an extra rule on top of normal clueing, such as a letter to remove before entry or answers that must be altered to fit their slots.

A comma in an enumeration showing where one word of a multi-word answer ends and the next begins.

The number of entries in a grid. A lower count means longer answers and more open space, which is why themeless puzzles quote it as a measure of ambition.

A database of possible entries, scored for quality, that construction software searches while filling a grid. The scoring is what keeps weak fill out.

The half of a cryptic clue that constructs the answer letter by letter rather than defining it. Anagrams, containers, charades, reversals and the rest are all wordplay.

The strict school of cryptic clue writing set out by the setter Ximenes, in which the wordplay must parse exactly and the clue's grammar must not cheat.