Crossword Clue Book

Product Information

Matt Gaffney likes to start with the theme and then use a divide-and-conquer approach to create his crosswords. Depending on the difficulty and the specific newspaper editor, you might find cryptic crossword clues with weird traits like these:

If you really want to get fancy with your crosswords, you can also create a crossword puzzle with a program like Crossword Compiler for Windows or CrossFire by Beekeeper Labs.Washington Post Crossword: Their daily crosswords are free and fun to play. They also have a “Monthly Meta Crossword” that’s themed. 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.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary Crossword: The dictionary has a ton of word games, and this is just one of them. Deletions involve deleting one or two letters to get a different answer. For instance, “mend” minus a letter could be “end” or “men.”

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. 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. The prolific Margaret Farrar is succeeded at The New York Times by Will Weng, who is later succeeded by Eugene T. Maleska. For the love of your sanity, use a pencil. If you’re using physical paper instead of an online crossword app, use a pencil and eraser. Mistakes, misinterpretations, and confusion are likely to arise, even if you’re a seasoned pro.The world’s largest published crossword, according to Guinness World Records, is published in Japan. It has 66,666 clues and measures 12 square miles.