Crossword

Crosswords make black-and-white, checkered boards fun and challenging as you form words out of thought-provoking context clues—a brain warmup game to unleash the inner puzzle solver inside you. Besides knowing the basic rules of playing a crossword puzzle, it helps to take a deep dive into the ABCs of a standard crossword grid.

Crossword Definition & Meaning

Crosswords are word-driven games that stimulate one’s brain and expand general knowledge; these puzzles eventually innovated by branching out with many types, themes, and graphic designs as crosswords have grown popular since 1913.

A crossword is a type of word puzzle played on a grid filled with black and white squares called cells, and the goal is to fill the white cells with the correct letters, horizontally or vertically, to answer certain clues.

What Is a Crossword?

A crossword puzzle can be played on a small or large print document and even online where a grid consisting of cells is visible. In a crossword grid, the black cells called darks are where you can’t write anything while the white cells or lights are where you write every letter per square. There would be a numbered list of clues to solve below the crossword grid and you are expected to write the answers either horizontally or vertically according to the appropriate numbers and positions on the grid.

10 Types of Crosswords

Easy Crossword

Are you new to playing crosswords? Not to worry because there is an easy crossword that marks as the perfect tool to practice this puzzling game. Everyone has to start somewhere and it is good to practice with the novice levels from easy crosswords before taking out the advanced crosswords that may turn out stressful for newbies.

Children’s Crossword

Introduce crosswords to kids and even those in grade or middle school so they can develop their brains, learn new words, and many other benefits from playing crosswords. A fitting children’s crossword design involves cartoon characters, colorful vectors, and lots of fun elements to invite children to play. Who knows, initiating a crossword game for kids may unlock a new brainy hobby for these curious individuals.

High School Crossword

Take crossword games up a notch with high school-level crosswords that every freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior student can take. Crosswords are a fun contest idea for schools in which the first person who can fill out every cell in a crossword grid gets a special prize or extra credit. To make a high school crossword even more educational, ensure that the clues in the crossword are related to science, math, and other academic subjects.

Birthday Crossword

Crosswords are also designed through different themes and one example is a birthday crossword. It could mean that the crossword’s clues are related to birthdays or that the crossword puzzle is one of the many activities you can invite your friends to play with during your special day. Whichever your purpose is, ensure that a birthday crossword’s design is festive or bright while the elements of a basic crossword are still there.

20 Word Crossword

One of the standard types of crosswords is the 20-word crossword. Prominent for its challenging factor, this type of crossword puzzle has 20 clues for you to solve. Whether the clues are related to games, music, food, or apps, make sure the grid is big enough to house a sufficient number of lights and darks for 20 words.

Newspaper Crossword

Fun fact, the first-ever crossword was published on December 21, 1913, and it was a game section for The New York World newspaper. That means a newspaper crossword is no stranger to the world of crossword puzzles. There are still some print and web browser newspaper crosswords made daily and are designed with minimalist B&W motifs.

Sports Crossword

Whether crossword clues are related to sports tournament history, sports star player icons, or the different kinds of sports, sports enthusiasts can certainly have fun and ace a well-made sports crossword. Even the foreground and background elements of a crossword could be sports-themed rather than having a plain grid. Be sure to spread out sports crosswords during sports events or National Sports Day.

Family Crossword

A pleasant time to bring your family close and spend a wonderful time together is to play a family crossword as a group. A nice worksheet idea here is to ensure the crossword clues aren’t limited to general knowledge within a specific age group. Make it both easy and difficult so every family member has something to contribute and not just the adults.

Small Crossword

Crosswords won’t have to take too much of your schedule and effort when you opt for small crosswords. A small crossword means there are only less than 10 words to solve in the puzzle. Anyone who is usually busy but wants a few minutes to enjoy playing crosswords can use this version as a quick brain twister.

Spiral Crossword

One unique design for a crossword is a spiral crossword. In this example, the entire grid’s cells are usually utilized for the lights and there is a spiral pattern to how you answer the crossword. It is expected that the very last clue to solve is meant to be written on the core or innermost cells of the square grid.

Crossword Uses, Purpose, Importance

Arthur Wynne, a British journalist, coined the crossword puzzle as he first published it on December 21, 1913 (Sunday) in The New York World newspaper. Thanks to his mental game invention, crosswords became relevant over the years and there are many reasons why it deserves to be played, remembered, and shared with the world.

Feeds New Knowledge and Facts

The main point of a crossword is to learn new things whether it is related to education, politics, entertainment, art, or basically anything. Play crossword daily and you’ll have your daily dose of new facts and information, which is a smart way to improve your knowledge. Things may look difficult the first few times you play this puzzle but as you increase the difficulty regularly, your crossword skills and what you learn would also improve little by little.

Encourages Growth and Development

Who would have thought that a blank sheet with fillable boxes called a crossword can lead to one’s growth and development? After solving every clue in a crossword, there is a chance your knowledge would expand, your vocabulary enhances, and your critical thinking and problem-solving skills would develop in general. Also, you grow both mentally and socially because you can spend time playing crosswords with your peers and learn all together.

Aligns with Common Interests

A fun feature of a crossword is that it can be customized with clues that align with your personal interests. Perhaps you want to focus on crossword clues related to animals, software, games, toys, Disney characters, or books. Go for themed puzzles so that you’ll enjoy solving the crossword and you have higher chances to finish the entire game due to how its theme is within your forte.

Implements a Fun Way to Boost Brain Function

Indeed, crosswords enhance brain function, especially in playing crosswords regularly. And several benefits go from there such as how you are least likely to forget certain facts and you can think critically quickly through every context clue given. At the point you’d grow to love crosswords in general, you’ll realize that it’s therapeutic to enjoy both playing and learning at the same time.

Promotes a Multi-Dimensional Puzzle Game

You won’t have to get bored with the same rules and same formats of crossword puzzles because there are a plethora of crossword types and themes out there. An example is how crossword clues aren’t always about definitions or descriptions of a word because they can be presented as anagrams, sound clues, and cryptic clues or riddles. Also, crosswords may have different rules and appearances such as the difference between a blocked grid, barred grid, cryptic grid, and freeform grid.

What’s in a Crossword? Parts?

Grid

A crossword’s main grid consists of a big box divided into squares or cells. Each cell can be categorized as either light or dark.

Lights

The light or white cell is a fillable square where you can write a letter to answer a clue. It is named “light” because of the comical thought that having an idea sparks a light bulb onto one’s head.

Darks

The dark or black cell suggests that you can’t write any letter on the cell. The darks are still important to guide you on where not to write and know the limits of the lights.

Clues

The clues are the riddles or hints you need to think critically to answer all the lights on the crossword, and these clues are divided into two: across and down. The itemized list of clues written under “Across” means you write the answers horizontally while the ones under “Down” must be answered vertically.

How to Design a Crossword

1. Set the right Crossword Size

2. Recognize the theme, type, and purpose of your crossword

3. Choose a Crossword Template

4. Complete the elements of a crossword

5. Save the file in PDF or any preferred format and publish it to be played

Crossword vs. Sudoku

A crossword is a puzzle game where you write every letter in a cell to answer clues.

Sudoku is a puzzle where you write every number in a cell to create patterns without repeating numbers in a horizontal line, vertical line, and a whole square.

What’s the Difference between a Crossword, Word Search, and Scrabble?

Crosswords are where you figure out words or answers according to context clues and critical thinking would be required to guess.

Word search is a word puzzle game that tests your visual skills, especially on how quickly you can find specific words in a table littered with strategically placed letters and a bunch of other random letters to confuse you.

Scrabble is a word puzzle where you are handed out random letters and the goal is to form words out of those jumbled letters.

Crossword Sizes

Whether you want to play crossword on the web or a print document, you are free to decide the size of your crosswords in inches or pixels as long as the entire elements of a crossword would fit and are still readable in your custom crossword size. However, you should know that standard crossword sizes are determined according to the number of squares or cells in a grid, such as:

• 15 × 15 Squares Crossword
• 21 × 21 Squares Crossword
• 25 × 25 Squares Crossword
• 40 × 50 Squares Crossword

Crossword Ideas & Examples

Just as there are many possible facts and interesting details to learn from a crossword puzzle, there is a range of crossword ideas and themes you can follow too. From Christmas Day gift ideas, summer vacay must-haves, post-wedding activities, Halloween-linked characters, and weekly journal ideas, to Instagram hashtags, you won’t run out of ideas easily on what embellishments and themes you could use to play crosswords.

• Cartoon Crossword Ideas and Examples
• School Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Blank Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Simple Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Sports Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Newspaper Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Spiral Crossword Ideas and Examples
• High School Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Family Crossword Ideas and Examples
• Children’s Crossword Ideas and Examples

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