Q 01/05

The puzzle now called the first crossword appeared in a Sunday newspaper in 1913 under which name?

A) Word-Square

B) Cross-Puzzle

C) Word-Cross

D) Letter-Lattice

Answer · why

C) Word-Cross

Word-Cross was the heading on that first puzzle, and only later were its two halves swapped round to give the name that stuck.

Q 02/05

What is a person who constructs or solves crosswords called?

A) A cruciverbalist

B) A logophile

C) A philologist

D) A lexicographer

Answer · why

A) A cruciverbalist

A cruciverbalist is, literally, a cross-worder: the term was built in mock Latin from crux, cross, and verbum, word, as a joking translation of 'cross...

Q 03/05

What was the trade of Arthur Wynne, who devised the first crossword in 1913?

A) Schoolteacher

B) Journalist

C) Printer

D) Bank clerk

Answer · why

B) Journalist

Journalist Arthur Wynne ran his puzzle in the New York World on 21 December 1913, and by the 1920s newspapers across America were printing their own.

Q 04/05

The first crossword ran in 1913 in which part of a Sunday newspaper?

A) The Fun page

B) The ladies' page

C) The children's page

D) The sports pages

Answer · why

A) The Fun page

The Fun page was the paper's Sunday puzzle section, and FUN duly turns up as the first word across in that first grid.

Q 05/05

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

A) Leeds

B) Birmingham

C) Liverpool

D) Manchester

Answer · why

C) Liverpool

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