60 Fun Facts About Crosswords

What are the two directions in which crossword entries run?

Each white square usually takes one letter, and black squares separate the entries.

What is a person who constructs or solves crosswords called?

The word was coined in the 1970s from the Latin for cross and word.

Who published the word-cross puzzle in the New York World on 21 December 1913 that is usually called the first crossword?

He was a journalist who had played violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The first crossword appeared in which part of the Sunday New York World?

Wynne created the whole page of puzzles for that section.

In which English city was the inventor of the modern crossword born in 1871?

He lived on Edge Lane for a time before emigrating to the United States.

An earlier crossword-like puzzle titled Per passare il tempo appeared in 1890 in a magazine of which country?

Giuseppe Airoldi's puzzle was a four-by-four grid with no shaded squares.

Which publisher issued the first book of crossword puzzles in 1924?

The idea came from co-founder Richard Simon's aunt, and the book launched the firm as a major publisher.

Which British newspaper was the first to publish a crossword, on 2 November 1924?

It was a Wynne puzzle adapted for the UK.

What did a 1924 New York Times editorial call the new crossword fad?

The same paper did not run a crossword of its own until 1942.

On what date did The New York Times finally publish its first crossword?

The puzzle was seen as a welcome distraction from the harsh news of World War II.

Who was The New York Times' first crossword editor, serving from 1942?

She had edited the first crossword books and used the royalties to underwrite her husband's publishing house.

Who became the fourth editor of The New York Times crossword in 1993?

He has also been the puzzle master on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since 1987.

Will Shortz, NYT crossword editor from 1993, holds the only known degree in what field?

He graduated from Indiana University in 1974.

Which sport is Will Shortz, NYT crossword editor from 1993, known to be skilled at?

He founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1978 and directed it for decades.

Who was the second New York Times crossword editor, a former head of the paper's metropolitan copy desk?

Eugene Maleska followed him as third editor until 1993.

What is the standard size of a weekday New York Times crossword grid?

The Sunday puzzle is 21 by 21.

Which day's New York Times crossword is the easiest?

Difficulty rises through the week to Saturday; solvers use the day as shorthand for how hard a puzzle is.

The Sunday New York Times puzzle is about as hard as which weekday-size puzzle?

It is bigger, not harder.

A question mark at the end of a crossword clue usually signals what?

The classic example clues what a grate might be full of.

What does the abbreviation Var. in a clue tell the solver?

EMEER instead of EMIR is the standard example.

Which type of clue is usually the easiest in an American puzzle and a good place to start?

For example, blank Boleyn gives ANNE.

Most American crossword grids are laid out with what property?

Constructors place theme answers first, then fill the rest of the grid, then write clues.

What is the term for obscure words such as ETUI, ERNE and OLEO that appear far more often in crosswords than in life?

They survive because their vowel-heavy letters help constructors fill grids.

Which Observer setter used the pen name Torquemada, after the Spanish Grand Inquisitor?

He set cryptics for the paper from 1926 until his death and also wrote the murder puzzle Cain's Jawbone.

Torquemada's successor at The Observer, who codified the rules of fair cryptic clueing in a 1966 book, set puzzles under what name?

His real name was Derrick Somerset Macnutt, head of classics at Christ's Hospital.

What was the day job of the Observer setter who wrote the 1966 rulebook on fair cryptic clues?

He had taken a double first in classics at Jesus College, Cambridge.

Which setter, writing as Afrit, set out the principle of fair cluing in Armchair Crosswords (1946)?

He credited it to the fictional Book of the Crossword.

Introduced in 1930, which weekly puzzle is generally regarded as the hardest cryptic in a British national publication?

It has been published in The Times since the magazine folded.

Which Daily Telegraph compiler was interrogated in 1944 after D-Day codenames such as Utah and Mulberry appeared in his puzzles?

He was a schoolteacher and former Southampton amateur footballer.

Some cryptologists for which wartime codebreaking centre were recruited after doing well in a crossword competition?

Puzzle skill was seen as a marker of the right kind of mind.

Which Broadway composer is credited with introducing cryptic crosswords to Americans through puzzles in New York magazine in 1968-69?

His love of puzzles inspired the central character of Anthony Shaffer's play Sleuth.

The famous 1996 election-day New York Times puzzle could be solved with either CLINTON or which other name at 39-Across?

Every crossing Down answer worked either way; Jeremiah Farrell constructed it.

Which former US president is a well-known New York Times crossword fan who appeared in the documentary Wordplay?

Jon Stewart also appears in the 2006 film.

Who directed the 2006 crossword documentary Wordplay?

It follows Will Shortz and the competitors at his annual tournament.

In which year was the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament founded?

The 2023 event set an attendance record with more than 750 competitors.

In which Connecticut city was the ACPT held for its first 30 years, returning there in 2015?

It moved to Brooklyn in 2008 as it outgrew the Marriott.

Rex Parker, the pseudonymous blogger who reviews the NYT crossword daily, is really which English professor?

He teaches at Binghamton University in New York.

Which two interim editors filled in at the NYT crossword, one in 1993 and one in 2024?

Fagliano covered while Shortz was on medical leave in 2024.

Which two women constructors have each contributed hundreds of puzzles to The New York Times?

Women editors such as Margaret Farrar shaped the puzzle's early decades.

Compass points such as NNW and ESE turn up often in American grids. How many three-letter compass abbreviations are possible?

The middle letter can only be N or S and the last only E or W.

In an American puzzle, the clue IV times III would yield what answer?

Roman numeral arithmetic is a common gambit.

The clue Summer, in the Sorbonne would produce which answer?

A French place in the clue signals a French answer.

What term describes an entry that is only part of a longer phrase, such as PSAND for Mind your blank Qs?

They are permitted in American-style crosswords.

Why must clues and answers agree in tense, number and degree?

Traveled on horseback can clue RODE but not RIDE, and Family members can clue AUNTS but not UNCLE.

What is Kakuro often described as?

Instead of words, solvers fit digits that add up to given sums.

The Sator Square, an ancient five-word Latin palindrome, was found scratched at which buried Roman city?

The earliest examples are in ROTAS form and predate the earthquake of AD 62.

What was the first NYT crossword editor's maiden name, under which she edited the first crossword puzzle books?

Her father invested her royalties, which later underwrote her husband's publishing firm.

The first NYT crossword editor's husband John was a co-founder of which publishing house?

He also co-founded Farrar and Rinehart.

What did the first crossword book of 1924 do for the young firm that published it?

It was the first of four bestselling compilations that year.

Which crossword constructor, born in Audubon, New Jersey, produced puzzles for AARP: The Magazine and the ACPT and featured in Wordplay?

He died in 2015.

What is the answer to the clue Grateful? in the classic wordplay example?

A grate might be full of them.

Who invented the themed crossword in 1958?

Bers was an advertising executive and a frequent contributor to The New York Times crossword.

The phrase 'cross word puzzle' first appeared in print in 1862 in which American children's magazine?

St. Nicholas, published from 1873, later carried crossword-like Double Diamond Puzzles.

Cipher crosswords, sold under names like Code Breakers and Kaidoku, were invented in which country?

They date from the 19th century and replace clue numbers with a letter code, unlike cryptic crosswords.

Guinness names which Shropshire setter, with over 66,666 puzzles, as the most prolific compiler ever?

His 66,666th puzzle in May 2007 amounted to some 2 million clues; he set for all five major British broadsheets.

Which French novelist compiled 9x9 grids with as few as three black squares for Le Point?

French grids number rows and columns rather than individual clues, and a 10 percent black-square rate is typical.

The arrow-clue puzzle called the Scandinavian crossword is believed to have originated where?

It has been called the most popular word puzzle in many European countries.

In a Japanese crossword, what goes into each white cell instead of a single letter?

This is why Japanese grids look small next to those of other languages.

In the UK, a diagramless puzzle is known as carte blanche or by what bony nickname?

Also known as carte blanche, it gives the grid's dimensions but not where the black squares or clue numbers go.

In which decade was the word 'cruciverbalist' apparently coined?

It fuses the Latin roots crucis, meaning cross, and verbum, meaning word.