How to Solve Crosswords: Tips That Work

Start with the clues you are sure about

Read every clue once before you write anything. On a first pass, fill only the answers you know without doubt: the fill-in-the-blank phrases, the plurals you can see from the clue, the short words with obvious definitions. Resist the temptation to enter a guess because it "probably" fits. A wrong answer in the grid is worse than an empty one, because every crossing clue now has a false letter to work against.

Most solvers find that a first pass fills a quarter of a grid. That is normal. The crossings do the rest.

Read the clue literally, then sideways

Plain-clue crosswords use a few recognisable clue shapes:

• A straight definition. "Large cat (4)" is LION or LYNX; the crossings decide.
• A fill-in-the-blank. "Once ___ a time (4)" is UPON. These are the easiest clues in any grid and the best place to start.
• A question-mark clue. The question mark means the setter is playing with the words: "Flower of London? (6)" is THAMES, because a river "flows". Read these twice, out loud if it helps, and look for the second meaning of the most ordinary word.
• An example clue. "Collie, for one (3)" is DOG: the answer is the category, the clue is a member of it.
• An abbreviation hint. "Doctor, briefly (3)" is DOC. Words such as "briefly", "for short" or "abbr." tell you the answer is shortened.

The grammar of a clue always matches the grammar of the answer. A clue in the past tense has a past-tense answer; a plural clue has a plural answer; a clue that is an adjective gives an adjective. If the clue reads "Ran quickly (6)", the answer ends in -ED (DASHED, SPRINTED is too long, so DASHED or RUSHED). That one rule rules out half the candidates for most clues.

Use the length and the pattern

The number in brackets is the answer length. On the Daily Crossword every other letter of an answer crosses another answer, so a seven-letter answer with letters 2, 4 and 6 filled is nearly solved: ?A?T?E? is quickly PASTEUR, PATTERN or PANTHER, and the clue decides. On the Mini, every square crosses, so one solved across answer gives you the first letter of five downs at once.

Get used to thinking in patterns rather than words. Common endings (-ING, -TION, -ED, -ER, -LY, -NESS) and beginnings (RE-, UN-, PRE-) often fit even before you know the answer, and writing just those letters in gives the crossings something to grip.

Work the crossings, not the clue list

Once the first pass is done, stop reading clues in order. Pick a half-filled answer and read its clue again with the letters in front of you. If it comes, write it and immediately read the clues of every answer it crosses. Solving spreads outward from solved areas like this, corner by corner. Jumping around the clue list at random wastes the letters you already have.

When you are stuck

• Change your reading of the clue word. "Lead" can be a metal, a dog's leash or a verb. "Bass" is a fish or a voice. The most ordinary word in the clue is usually the trap.
• Try the letters you don't use much. If a crossing gives you ?U?Z, think QUIZ before anything else; Q, Z, X and J are in few words, so they narrow things fast.
• Say the pattern aloud. The ear hears words the eye misses.
• Leave it and come back. A clue that is blank for ten minutes is often obvious after a minute away. On the Daily Crossword the clock pauses when you leave the page, so a break costs nothing.
• Use Check sparingly. On both crosswords, Check marks wrong letters and Reveal shows a letter or a word. A helped grid still counts for your streak and statistics, but it is not ranked, so try the thinking steps first.

Common mistakes

1. Entering a guess as if it were certain. Pencil it in your head, not in the grid, until a crossing confirms it.
2. Ignoring the tense and number. If the clue is plural, the answer ends in S (or is an irregular plural such as MICE). Setters are strict about this.
3. Reading a question-mark clue straight. The question mark is a promise that the surface reading is a decoy.
4. Giving up on a long answer. Long answers have the most crossings. Fill the short ones around them and the long one appears.
5. Not checking the finished grid. When every square is filled the grid is checked for you; if it is not accepted, look first at any answer you were unsure about, and at squares where two of your answers "agreed" on a letter you never confirmed from either clue.

A few words every solver meets

Crosswords lean on certain short words because they are easy to cross: ERA, ALOE, ARIA, EPEE, ETNA, OBOE, EMU, ALE and ORE appear in many grids because of their friendly vowels. Learning the common ones is not cheating; it is how regular solvers get faster. The Daily Crossword avoids obscure crossword-only words, so you will mostly meet words you know, clued from a slightly unexpected angle.

Glossary

• Across / Down: the two directions of answers. Clues are numbered by the square where the answer starts.
• Crossing: a square shared by an across and a down answer. Each letter you find in one direction is a clue in the other.
• Blocked grid: the British style with black squares between answers, where every other letter crosses (the Daily Crossword).
• Fully checked grid: the American style where every white square belongs to both an across and a down answer (the Mini).
• Fill-in-the-blank: a clue with a missing word, shown as ___.
• Enumeration: the number in brackets giving the answer length.
• Surface reading: what a clue appears to say before you look for the hidden meaning.