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"Crosswords" redirects here. For the Merv Griffin game show, see Merv Griffin's Crosswords. Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin Jr ( July 6, 1925 &ndash August 12, 2007) was an American Television host and Merv Griffin's Crosswords is a syndicated Game show based on the paper-and-pencil pastime of Crosswords The show was created by its namesake

A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. A puzzle is a Problem or Enigma that challenges Ingenuity. In a basic puzzle one is intended to piece together objects in a logical way in order to The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages which are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The black squares are used to separate the words or phrases.

Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication.

Contents

Terminology

The creating of crosswords is called cruciverbalism among its practitioners, who are referred to as cruciverbalists. The terms derive from the Latin for cross and word. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although the terms have existed since the mid 1970s, non-cruciverbalists rarely use them, calling crossword creators constructors or (especially outside the United States) setters. Many puzzle creators in the UK regard this term as affected or pretentious and consider that "compiler" is adequate.

The horizontal and vertical lines of white cells into which answers are written are commonly called entries or answers. The clues are usually called just that, or sometimes definitions. White cells are sometimes called lights, and the black cells are sometimes called darks, blanks, or blocks.

A white cell that is part of two entries (both Across and Down) is called checked, keyed or crossed. A white cell that is part of only one entry is called unchecked, unkeyed or uncrossed.

Types of grid

American-style grid
American-style grid
British-style grid
British-style grid
Japanese-style grid
Japanese-style grid

Crossword grids such as those appearing in most North American newspapers and magazines feature solid chunks of white squares. Every letter is checked, and usually each answer is required to contain at least three letters. In such puzzles black squares are traditionally limited to about one-sixth of the design. Crossword grids elsewhere, such as in Britain and Australia, have a lattice-like structure, with a higher percentage of black squares, leaving up to half the letters in an answer unchecked. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Latticework is an ornamental, lattice Framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of Building material, usually Wood or For example, if the top row has an answer running all the way across, there will be no across answers in the second row.

Another tradition in puzzle design (in North America and Britain particularly) is that the grid should have 180-degree rotational symmetry, so that its pattern appears the same if the paper is turned upside down. Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically-pleasing proportionality and balance such that it reflects beauty or Most puzzle designs also require that all white cells be orthogonally contiguous (that is, connected in one mass through shared sides, to form a single polyomino). In Recreational mathematics, a polyomino is a Polyform with the square as its base form

The design of Japanese crossword grids often follows two additional rules: that black cells may not share a side and that the corner squares must be white.

Substantial variants from the usual forms exist. Two of the common ones are barred crosswords, which use bold lines between squares (instead of black squares) to separate answers, and circular designs, with answers entered either radially or in concentric circles. Free form crosswords have simple designs and are not symmetric. Grids forming shapes other than squares are also occasionally used.

Puzzles are often one of several standard sizes. For example, many weekday puzzles (such as the New York Times crossword) are 15×15 squares, while weekend puzzles may be 21×21, 23×23 or 25×25.

Typically, clues appear outside the grid, divided into an Across list and a Down list; the first cell of each entry contains a number referenced by the clue lists. For example, the answer to a clue labeled "17-Down" is entered with the first letter in the cell numbered "17", proceeding down from there. Numbers are almost never repeated; numbered cells are labeled consecutively, usually from left to right across each row, starting with the top row and proceeding downward. Some Japanese crosswords are numbered from top to bottom down each column, starting with the leftmost column and proceeding right.

Some crosswords do not number the clues, but have their clues in small print inside grid cells which act as blanks, each clue with a little arrow indicating in which direction from its initial cell the answer is to be written. This kind of crossword originated in Scandinavia and has many different names: "Arrowwords", "Pointers" or "Tipwords" in English, Autodefinidos in Spanish, "Mots Fléchés" in French, etc, and are very popular, often being printed larger than conventional crosswords (to allow adequate space for printing the clues) and are much-used in competitions.

Orthography

Answers are printed in upper case letters. Capital letters or majuscules pronunciation /məˈdʒʌskyuls ˈmædʒəˌskyuls/ in the Roman alphabet A, B, C, D, This ensures a proper name can have its initial capital letter checked with a non-capitalizable letter in the intersecting clue. "A proper name a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic Capitalization (or capitalisation &mdash see spelling differences) is writing a word with its first letter as a Majuscule (upper case letter Diacritical markings in foreign loanwords are ignored for similar reasons. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation In languages other than English, the status of diacritics varies according to the orthography of the particular language, thus:

See also: Digraph (orthography)#Digraphs versus letters
See also: Diacritic

Types of clues

Straight or quick

In some crosswords, often called straight or quick, the clues are usually simple definitions for the answers. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation Some clues may feature anagrams, and these are usually explicitly described as such. Often, a straight clue is not in itself sufficient to distinguish between several possible answers (often synonyms), and the solver must make use of checks to establish the correct answer with certainty.

Crossword clues should not be inconsistent with the solutions. For instance clues and their solutions should always agree in tense and number. If a clue is in the past tense, so is the answer: thus "Traveled on horseback" would be a valid clue for the solution "rode", but not for "ride". Similarly, "Family members" would be a valid clue for "aunts" but not "uncle". Some clue examples:

In the hands of any but the most skilled compilers, the constraints of the American-style grid (in which every letter is checked) usually require a fair number of lights not to be dictionary words. As a result the following ways to clue abbreviations and other non-words, although they can be found in "straight" British crosswords, are much more numerous in American ones:

Crossword themes

Many American crossword puzzles contain a "theme" consisting of a number of long entries (generally three to five in a standard 15x15-square "weekday"-size puzzle) that share some relationship, type of pun, or other element in common. As an example, the New York Times crossword of April 26, 2005 by Sarah Keller, edited by Will Shortz, featured five theme entries ending in the different parts of a tree:

SQUAREROOT

TABLELEAF

WARDROBETRUNK

BRAINSTEM

BANKBRANCH

The above is an example of a category theme, where the theme elements are all members of the same set. Events 1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Will Shortz (born August 26, 1952) is an American puzzle creator and editor Other types of themes include quote themes, featuring a famous quote broken up into parts to fit in the grid (and usually clued as "Quote, part 1", "Quote, part 2", etc. ); rebus themes, where multiple letters or even symbols occupy a single square in the puzzle (e. g. , BERMUDAΔ); pun-based themes (perhaps the most common), where all the answers are similar puns; commemorative themes, based on a particular event or person (often published on an appropriate anniversary); and other less common types.

The Simon & Schuster Crossword Puzzle Series has published many unusual themed crosswords. "Rosetta Stone" by Sam Bellotto Jr. , incorporated a Caesar Cipher cryptogram as the theme; the key to breaking the cipher was the answer to 1 Across. Another unusual theme required the solver to use the answer to a clue as another clue. The answer to that clue was the real solution.

Quiz crosswords

In quiz crosswords, the clues take the form of questions. These may be on general knowledge or on a single topic.

The first entries

In the 'Quick' crossword in the Daily Telegraph newspaper (Sunday and Daily, UK), it has become a convention also to make the first few words (usually two or three, but can be more) into a phrase. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located For example, "Dimmer, Allies" would make "Demoralise" or "You, ill, never, walk, alone" would become "You'll never walk alone". This generally aids the solver in that if they have one of the words then they can attempt to guess the phrase. This has also become popular among other British newspapers. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located

Indirect clues

In many puzzles, some clues are to be taken metaphorically or in some sense other than their literal meaning, or require some form of lateral thinking. Depending on the puzzle creator or the editor, this might be represented either with a question mark at the end of the clue or with a modifier such as "maybe" or "perhaps". Examples:

Cryptic crosswords

Main article: Cryptic crossword

In cryptic crosswords, often called cryptics, the clues are puzzles in themselves. Cryptic crosswords are crossword puzzles of a special type one in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself A typical clue contains a definition at the beginning or end of the clue, and wordplay, which describes the word indicated by the definition, and which may not parse logically, but should be grammatical. Cryptics usually give the length of their answers in parentheses after the clue. Certain signs indicate different wordplay. Cryptics have a longer "learning curve" than standard crosswords as learning to interpret the different types of cryptic clues can take some practice. In Great Britain and throughout much of the Commonwealth, cryptics of varying degrees of difficulty are featured in many newspapers. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands

There are several types of wordplay used in cryptics. One is straightforward definition substitution using parts of a word. For example, in one puzzle by Mel Taub, the answer IMPORTANT is given the clue "To bring worker into the country may prove significant". The explanation is that to "import" means "to bring into the country"; the "worker" is a worker ant; and "significant" means "important. " Note that in a cryptic clue, there is almost always only one answer that fits both the definition and the wordplay, so that when you see the answer, you know it is the right answer - although it can sometimes be a challenge to figure out why it is the right answer.

A good cryptic clue should provide a fair and exact definition of the answer, while at the same time being deliberately misleading. It is the setter's challenge to mean what he says without necessarily saying what he means - a quandary familiar to those who have enjoyed the writings of Lewis Carroll.

Another type of wordplay used in cryptics is homophones. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning For example, the clue "A few, we hear, add up (3)" is solved by SUM. The definition is "add up", meaning "totalize". The solver must guess that "we hear" indicates a homophone, and so a homophone of a synonym of "A few" ("SOME") is the answer. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning

Another wordplay commonly used is the double meaning. For example, "Cat's tongue (7)" is solved by PERSIAN, since this is a type of cat, as well as a tongue, or language.

Cryptics very often include anagrams. An anagram ( Greek anagramma 'letters written anew' passive participle of ana- 'again' + gramma 'letter' is a type of Word play The clue "Ned T. 's seal cooked is rather bland (5,4)" is solved by NEEDS SALT. The meaning is "is rather bland", and the word "cooked" is a hint to the solver that this clue is an anagram (the letters have been "cooked", or jumbled up). "Nedtsseal" (ignoring all punctuation, of course) is an anagram for NEEDS SALT. Besides "cooked", other common hints that the clue contains an anagram are words such as "scrambled", "mixed up", "confused", "baked" or "twisted". In answer sheets, an anagram is commonly indicated by an asterisk.

Embedded words are another common trick in cryptics. The clue "Bigotry aside, I'd take him (9)" is solved by APARTHEID. The meaning is "bigotry", and the wordplay explains itself, indicated subtly by the word "take" (since one word "takes" another): "aside" means APART and I'd is simply ID, so APART and ID "take" HE (which is, in cryptic crossword usage, a perfectly good synonym for "him"). The answer could be elucidated as APART(HE)ID.

There is the oft-used hidden clue, where the answer is hidden in the text of the clue itself. For example, "Made a dug-out, buried, and passed away (4)" is solved by DEAD. The answer is written in the clue: "maDE A Dug-out". "Buried" indicates that the answer is embedded within the clue.

There is no end to the wordplay found in cryptic clues. Backwards words can be indicated by words like "climbing", "retreating", or "ascending" (depending on whether it is an across clue or a down clue); letters can be replaced or removed with indicators such as "nothing rather than excellence" (meaning replace E in a word with O); the letter I can be indicated by "me" or "one;" the letter O can be indicated by "nought" or "a ring" (since it visually resembles one); the letter X might be clued as "a cross", or "ten" (as in the Roman numeral), or "an illiterate's signature", or "sounds like your old flame" (homophone for "ex"). Roman numerals are a Numeral system originating in ancient Rome, adapted from Etruscan numerals. "Senselessness" is solved by "e", because "e" is what remains after removing (less) "ness" from "sense".

With the different types of wordplay and definition possibilities, the composer of a cryptic puzzle is presented with many different possible ways to clue a given answer. Most desirable are clues that are clean but deceptive, with a smooth surface reading (that is, the resulting clue looks as natural a phrase as possible). The Usenet newsgroup rec. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system puzzles. crosswords has a number of clueing competitions where contestants all submit clues for the same word and a judge picks the best one.

In principle, each cryptic clue is usually sufficient to define its answer uniquely, so it should be possible to answer each clue without use of the grid. In practice, the use of checks is an important aid to the solver. (Cryptic crosswords are not to be confused with cryptograms, a different form of puzzle based on a substitution cipher. A cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text In Cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of Encryption by which units of plaintext are substituted with Ciphertext according to a regular system )

Double clue lists

Sometimes newspapers publish one grid that can be filled by solving either of two lists of clues - usually a straight and a cryptic. The solutions given by the two lists may be different, in which case the solver must decide at the outset which list they are going to follow, or the solutions may be identical, in which case the straight clues offer additional help for a solver having difficulty with the cryptic clues. For example, the solution APARTHEID might be clued as "Bigotry aside, I'd take him (9)" in the cryptic list, and "Racial separation (9)" in the straight list. Usually the straight clue matches the straight part of the cryptic clue, but this is not necessarily the case.

Every issue of GAMES Magazine contains a large crossword with a double clue list, under the title The World's Most Ornery Crossword; both lists are straight and arrive at the same solution, but one list is significantly more challenging than the other. This article is about a US puzzle magazine For the UK computer and video games magazine see GamesTM. The solver is prompted to fold a page in half, showing the grid and the hard clues; the easy clues are tucked inside the fold, to be referenced if the solver gets stuck.

A variant of the double-clue list is commonly called Siamese Twins: two matching grids are provided, and the two clue lists are merged together such that the two clues for each entry are displayed together in random order. Determining which clue is to be applied to which grid is part of the puzzle.

Other clue variations

Any type of puzzle may contain cross-references, where the answer to one clue forms part of another clue, in which it is referred to by number.

When an answer is composed of multiple or hyphenated words, some crosswords (especially in Britain) indicate the structure of the answer. For example, "(3,5)" after a clue indicates that the answer is composed of a three-letter word followed by a five-letter word.

Example

Here is a small example of a regular crossword, to illustrate the format:

1   ²    
         
³       4
         
    5    

Across

1. Sheep sound (3)
3. Neither liquid nor gas (5)
5. Humour (3)

Down

1. Road passenger transport (3)
2. Permit (5)
4. Shortened form of Dorothy (3)

The solution to this crossword is:

1B 9A ²A . .
9U . 9L . .
³S 9O 9L 9I 4D
. . 9O . 9O
. . 5W 9I 9T

A set of cryptic clues that provide the same answers as above might be:

Across

1. Start of announcement by British Airways sounds woolly? (3)
3. I sold out for real (5)
5. Wilde's intelligence (3)

Down

1. Ferry sees submarine rising (3)
2. Now without its initial after every warrant (5)
4. Do time? There's a point (3)

How the clues work:

Across

Down

NOTES:

a) The clue 5-Across would be disallowed in U. S. cryptics, with the sole exception of Frank Lewis's puzzles in The Nation, which do allow occasional non-cryptic clues in order to throw the solver an occasional curveball. For a U. S. cryptic, the clue could be something like "In Brooklyn, having this can be funny". (Explanation: Having = definition of WITH; In Brooklyn = instruction to write WITH as it is said with a Brooklyn accent, = WIT; this can be funny = definition of WIT.

Major crossword variants

These are common crossword variants that vary more from a regular crossword than just an unusual grid shape or unusual clues; these crossword variants may be based on different solving principles and require a different solving skill set.

Cipher crosswords

Published under various trade names (including Code Breakers, Code Crackers, and Kaidoku), and not to be confused with cryptic crosswords (ciphertext puzzles are commonly known as cryptograms), a cipher crossword replaces the clues for each entry with clues for each white cell of the grid - a number integer from 1 to 26 inclusive is printed in the corner of each. A cryptogram is a type of puzzle which consists of a short piece of encrypted text The objective, as any other crossword, is to determine the proper letter for each cell; in a cipher crossword, the 26 numbers serve as a cipher for those letters: cells that share matching numbers are filled with matching letters, and no two numbers stand for the same letter. In Cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an Algorithm for performing Encryption and Decryption &mdash a series of well-defined steps All resultant entries must be valid words. Usually, at least one number's letter is given at the outset. Cipher crosswords are always pangrammatic (all letters of the alphabet appear in the solution). A pangram ( Greek: pan gramma, "every letter" or holoalphabetic sentence, is a sentence using every letter of the Alphabet at least As these puzzles are closer to codes than quizzes, they require a different skillset; many basic cryptographic techniques, such as determining likely vowels, are key to solving these. Given their pangrammaticity, a frequent start point is locating where 'Q' and 'U' must appear.

Diagramless crosswords

In a diagramless crossword, often called a diagramless for short or, in the UK, a skeleton crossword or carte blanche, the grid offers overall dimensions, but the locations of most of the clue numbers and black squares are unspecified. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A solver must deduce not only the answers to individual clues, but how to fit together partially built-up clumps of answers into larger clumps with properly-set black squares. Some of these puzzles follow the traditional symmetry rule, others have left-right mirror symmetry, and others have greater levels of symmetry or outlines suggesting other shapes. If the symmetry of the grid is given, the solver can use it to his/her advantage.

A variation is the Blankout puzzle in the Daily Mail Weekend magazine. The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format The clues are not individually numbered, but given in terms of the rows and columns of the grid, which has rectangular symmetry. The list of clues gives hints of the locations of some of the black squares even before one starts solving them, e. g. there must be a black square where a row having no clues intersects a column having no clues.

Fill-in crosswords

A fill-in crossword (also known as crusadex or cruzadex) features a grid and the full list of words to be entered in that grid, but does not give explicit clues for where each word goes. The challenge is figuring out how to integrate the list of words together within the grid so that all intersections of words are valid. Fill-in crosswords may often have longer word length than regular crosswords to make the crossword easier to solve, and symmetry is often disregarded. Fitting together several long words is easier than fitting together several short words because there are fewer possibilities for how the long words intersect together.

Crossnumbers

A crossnumber (also known as a cross-figure) is the numerical analogy of a crossword, in which the solutions to the clues are numbers instead of words. A cross-figure (also variously called cross number puzzle or figure logic) is a Puzzle similar to a Crossword in structure but with entries Clues are usually arithmetical expressions, but can also be general knowledge clues to which the answer is a number or year. Arithmetic or arithmetics (from the Greek word αριθμός = number is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used by almost everyone Trivia (singular trivium) are unimportant (or "trivial" items especially of information There are also numerical fill-in crosswords.

The Daily Mail Weekend magazine used to feature crossnumbers under the misnomer Number Word. The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format This kind of puzzle should not be confused with a different puzzle that the Daily Mail refers to as Cross Number.

History

On December 21, 1913, Arthur Wynne, a Liverpool journalist, published a "word-cross" puzzle in the New York World that embodied most of the features of the genre as we know it. Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Arthur Wynne (1862 - 1945 born Liverpool, England, was a British editor and puzzle constructor in his home country and the United States of America The New York World was a Newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931 This puzzle is frequently cited as the first crossword puzzle, and Wynne as the inventor. Later, the name of the puzzle was changed to "crossword. " Sik Cambon Jensen has also summarized the birth of the crossword puzzle.

Arthur Wynne's original crossword puzzle from December 21, 1913.
Arthur Wynne's original crossword puzzle from December 21, 1913. Arthur Wynne (1862 - 1945 born Liverpool, England, was a British editor and puzzle constructor in his home country and the United States of America Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common

Crossword puzzles became a regular weekly feature in the World. The first book of crossword puzzles appeared in 1924, published by Simon and Schuster. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Simon & Schuster Inc, a division of CBS Corporation, is a Publisher founded in New York in 1924 by Richard L The book was an instant hit and crossword puzzles became the craze of 1924. The term crossword first appeared in a dictionary in 1930.

Today, there are many popular crosswords distributed in American newspapers and online. The most prestigious (and among the most difficult to solve) are the New York Times puzzles. The first editor of the New York Times crossword was Margaret Farrar, who was editor from 1942 to 1969. Margaret Petherbridge Farrar ( March 23 1897 – June 11 1984) was an American Journalist and the first Crossword puzzle She was succeeded by Will Weng, who was succeeded by Eugene T. Maleska. Will Weng ( February 25 1907 – May 2 1993) was an American Journalist and Crossword puzzle constructor who Eugene Thomas Maleska ( January 6, 1916 &ndash August 3, 1993) was a U Since 1993, they have been edited by Will Shortz, the fourth crossword editor in Times. Will Shortz (born August 26, 1952) is an American puzzle creator and editor In 1978 Shortz founded and still directs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is an annual Crossword -solving Tournament held every March

Simon and Schuster continues to publish the Crossword Series books that it began in 1924, currently under the editorship of John M. Samson.

The British cryptic crossword was imported to the US in 1968 by composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim in New York magazine. Stephen Joshua Sondheim (born March 22 1930 is an American musical and film composer and lyricist winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards (seven New York is a weekly magazine concerned with the life culture politics and style of New York City. Until 2006, the Atlantic Monthly regularly featured a cryptic crossword "puzzler" by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, which combines cryptic clues with diabolically ingenious variations on the construction of the puzzle itself. The Atlantic (formerly known as The Atlantic Monthly) is an American Magazine founded in Boston in 1857 Emily Cox is a US Puzzle Writer. She and her partner Henry Rathvon, write "The Puzzler" a Cryptic crossword featured each month Henry Rathvon is a Puzzle Writer. He and his partner Emily Cox, write The Puzzler a cryptic Crossword featured each month in the In both cases, no two puzzles are alike in construction, and the intent of the puzzle authors is to entertain with novelty, not to establish new variations of the crossword genre.

In the United Kingdom, the Sunday Express was the first newspaper to publish a crossword on November 2, 1924, a Wynne puzzle adapted for the UK. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Daily Express is a conservative Middle-market British Tabloid Newspaper. Events 1570 - A Tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1000 Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The first crossword in Britain, according to Tony Augarde in his "Oxford Guide to Word Games" (1984), was in "Pearson's Magazine" for February 1922.

Crossword puzzles in World War II

In 1944 Allied security officers were disturbed by the appearance, in a series of crosswords in The Daily Telegraph, of words that were secret code names for military operations planned as part of Operation Overlord. Operation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of northwest Europe during World War II by Allied forces "Utah" (the code name for one of the landing sites) appeared in a puzzle on May 2, 1944. Events 1194 - King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Subsequent puzzles included the landing site "Omaha" and "Mulberry"; the secret artificial harbours.

On June 2, four days before the invasion, the puzzle included both "Neptune" (the naval operations plan) and "Overlord". Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks The author of the puzzles, a schoolteacher named Leonard Dawe, was interviewed and interrogated. The investigators concluded that the appearance of the words was a coincidence, as a result of stationed troops in the region mentioning the phrases in passing, which Dawe's schoolchildren repeated. The event has been described in histories, and has been used as an illustration of how seemingly meaningful events can arise out of pure coincidence.

According to National Geographic, in 1984 a former student of Dawe's claimed that he had picked up the words while eavesdropping on soldiers' conversations around the army camps and suggested them to Dawe to use in puzzles. Overview The NGS's historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural historical and natural [1] This assertion has not been independently verified, and Marc Romano, author of the book Crossworld: One Man's Journey into America's Crossword Obsession, gives a number of reasons for why the story is implausible.

Cryptologists for Bletchley Park were selected, among other means, by timed cryptic crosswords. Bletchley Park, also known as Station X, is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, and (since 1967 part of Milton Keynes

Record holder

According to Guinness Records, 15th May 2007, the most prolific crossword compiler is Roger Squires of Ironbridge, Shropshire, UK. Roger Squires (born 22 February, 1932, in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, England) is a British Crossword compiler living Ironbridge is a settlement on the River Severn, at the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge in Telford, Shropshire, England. Shropshire (ˈʃrɒpʃɪə/ /-ʃə alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated in print only Shrops, is a county in the On 14th May 2007 he published his 66,666th crossword[1], equivalent to 2 million clues. He is one of only four setters to have provided cryptic puzzles to The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Independent. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia see The Daily Telegraph (Australia. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. The Financial Times ( FT) is a British international business Newspaper. The Independent is a British compact Newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly 's Independent News & Media. He also holds the record for the longest word ever used in a published crossword - the 58-letter Welsh town Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch clued as an anagram. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (short form Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) also spelled Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll and commonly known as Llanfair

Crosswords in non-English languages

Although the crossword is an English-language invention and most common in English-speaking countries, other countries have crosswords in their respective languages.

French-language crosswords are smaller than English-language ones, and not necessarily square: usually 8–13 rows and columns, totaling 81–130 squares. They need not be symmetric and two-letter words are allowed, unlike in most English-language puzzles. Compilers strive to minimize use of black squares. 10% is typical; Georges Perec compiled many 9×9 grids for Le Point with four or even three [2]. Georges Perec ( 7 March 1936 &ndash 3 March 1982) was a highly-regarded French Le Point ( is a French weekly News magazine. It was founded in 1972 by a group of Journalists who had one year earlier left the Rather than numbering the individual clues, the rows and columns are numbered as on a chessboard. A chessboard is the type of Checkerboard used in the Game of Chess, and consists of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns arranged in two alternating All clues for a given row or column are listed, against its number, as separate sentences. This is similar to the notation used in the aforementioned Daily Mail Blankout puzzles. The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format

In Italy, crosswords are usually oblong and larger than French ones, 13x21 being a common size. As in France, they usually are not symmetrical; two-letter words are allowed; and the number of black squares is minimized. Nouns (including surnames) and the infinitive or past participle of verbs are allowed, as are abbreviations; in larger crosswords, it is customary to put at the center of the grid phrases made of two to four words, or forenames and surnames. A variant of Italian crosswords does not use black squares: words are delimited by thickening the grid. Another variant starts with a blank grid: the solver must insert both the answers and the black squares, and Across and Down clues are ordered by row and column.

Particularly curious is the Japanese language crossword; due to the writing system, one syllable (typically katakana) is entered into each white cell of the grid rather than one letter, resulting in the typical solving grid seeming rather small in comparison to those of other languages. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet Any second Yōon character is treated as a full syllable and is rarely written with a smaller character. is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added {{IPA|[j]}} sound Even cipher crosswords have a Japanese equivalent, although pangrammaticity does not apply. The crossword with kanji to fill in are also produced, but in far smaller number as it takes far more effort to construct one. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana Despite having three writing forms, hiragana, katakana and kanji, they are rarely mixed in a crossword puzzle. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet

In Poland, crosswords typically use British-style grids, but some do not have black cells. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Black cells are often replaced by boxes with clues - such crosswords are called Swedish puzzles or Swedish-style crosswords. In a vast majority of Polish crosswords, nouns are the only allowed words.

Modern Hebrew is normally written with only the consonants; vowels are either understood, or entered as diacritical marks. This can lead to ambiguities in the entry of some words, and compilers generally specify that answers are to be entered in "ktav male" ("full spelling, ie with vowels) or "ktav haser" ("deficient spelling", without vowels). Further, since Hebrew is written from right to left, but Roman numerals are used and written from left to right, there can be an ambiguity in the description of lengths of entries, particularly for multi-word phrases. Different compilers and publications use differing conventions for both of these issues.

In India A.N.Prahlada Rao from Bangalore has composed 20,000 crossword puzzles in Kannada, including 5,000 crosswords based on Kannada films. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country A N Prahlada Rao (born 24 July 1953) is a Kannada Crossword writer who has created the highest number of crosswords in India Bangalore ( officially Bengaluru ( Kannada: ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Kannada (kn [[wiktಕನ್ನಡ ಕನ್ನಡ]] Kannaḍa) is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state The first-ever 5 volumes of Kannada crossword puzzles compiled by A. N. Prahlad Rao has been launched in February 2008.

Notation

A notation has evolved to allow crosswords to be rendered compactly, and enjoyed by the blind or partially sighted. Blindness is the condition of lacking Visual perception due to Physiological or Neurological factors Visual impairment or vision impairment is Vision loss that constitutes a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from Disease,

It consists of giving the locations of the black squares in each row as letters (A=1,B=2, etc. ), e. g. for the example crossword above:

  1. D E
  2. B D E
  3.  
  4. A B D
  5. A B

Although the numbering scheme could be consistently applied from this information, it is customary to quote the starting square of each clue in (number-letter) format. There are many different numbering schemes for assigning Nominal numbers to entities

Computational complexity

The construction of crossword puzzles is an NP-complete problem. In Computational complexity theory, the Complexity class NP-complete (abbreviated NP-C or NPC) is a class of problems having two properties [2]

References

  1. ^ (Pat-Ella)"Crossword setter hits puzzling landmark", Richard Savill, Daily Telegraph, 15 May 2007
  2. ^ Michael R. Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Garey and David S. Johnson. Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness. W. H. Freeman and Company, 258.  

The Crossword Obsession by Coral Amende ISBN 0-425-18157-X Crossworld by Marc Romano ISBN 0-7679-1757-X

See also

Puzzles commonly called the numerical equivalent of a crossword:

Board games based on the crossword concept:

Aids to solve crosswords include:

External links

Kakuro or Kakkuro (カックロ is a kind of Logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical Transliteration of the Crossword is a Logic -based number-placement Puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column each row and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks The verb "to scrabble" also means to scratch scramble or scrape about see Wiktionaryscrabble. Upwords is a Board game invented by Elliot Rudell and published by Hasbro. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically Biographical dictionaries &mdash a type of Encyclopedic dictionary limited to Biographical information &mdash have been written in many languages This article is about a type of reference work used in composing poetry A gazetteer is a geographical Dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names (see Toponomy) used in conjunction An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge ALMANAC is the name of a major Breast cancer trial The Acronym stands for "Axillary Lymphatic Mapping Against Nodal Axillary Clearance A thesaurus is a book that contains Synonyms and sometimes Antonyms, in contrast to a Dictionary, which contains Definitions and Pronunciations The Straight Dope is a popular question-and-answer Newspaper column published in the Chicago Reader, syndicated in thirty Newspapers

Dictionary

crossword

-noun

  1. (games, puzzles) A word puzzle in which interlocking words are entered usually horizontally and vertically into a grid based on clues given for each word.
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