We’ve even included some tips and encouragement from the puzzle pros to help keep you motivated, like our very funny friend, Megan Amram, a writer for television shows like “The Simpsons” and “The Good Place.” Ms. Amram is a devoted solver and has also made a puzzle that ran in The New York Times. The answer is likely to be a pun, a misdirection, or some other type of wordplay. There’s logic behind this, we promise. Here’s one that changes an ‘S’ to an ‘SH’ at the start of the second word of a familiar phrase to turn it into something completely different: At 17-Across, for example, BEST SELLER becomes BEST SHELLER. No registration is required. From being duped by magic tricks to pondering those brain-twisting crossword clues, why do humans so love being fooled? Solve it daily in this perfect crossword challenge! An American-style crossword has “all-over interlock,” which means that no part of the grid can be completely cut off by the black squares. Themes can be placed anywhere in the crossword grid, depending on the creativity of the puzzle constructor. You can thank us later. It's still a definition, but it's cryptic. But most commonly they involve playing with words. And once you log in, you can save your progress across all the digital platforms. That’s where all of that devious, delicious wordplay is tucked into the clues, and where the fun in solving crosswords lies. The Monday New York Times Crosswords are the easiest, and the puzzles get harder as the week goes on. Above all, have fun. Get started with our guide to how to do The Times cryptic crossword. Most crosswords include numbers in the white squares so the player can match each question with a specific answer location. As we said, there may be a lot of forehead slapping as you get into the late week puzzles, but hang in there. The Times has even run puzzles where solvers had to write the theme outside the grid. Just remember to make sure that the tenses of each clue and its answer match. Think about the rest of the clue. We’ve put an “*” by the clues that adhere to the ‘foreign language’ rule to help. Fill-in-the-blank: A clue that contains a blank where the answer goes. 2. 5. Your officemate keeps bragging about his ability to finish The New York Times Crossword. The subsidiary indicator offers a route to the solution – but it also offers the setter the opportunity to lead you down the garden path. 6. Take the word BOOK, for example. Click Print at the top of the puzzle board to play the crossword with pen and paper. Use a sheet of graph paper. Illustrations by Elena Xausa. Definition? Imagine how much that unique facet of language enthralls our puzzle makers and editors. For comparison, the size of a Times daily crossword is 15x15 and the Sunday crossword is 21x21. Part of the fun is determining where in the entry the rebus belongs. It almost certainly isn't. The puzzle maker and the editor are playing around with words and phrases in a clue like this, so free your mind up and think about other ways the words in the clues might be used. You might want to spend some time staring at them until the heteronym reveals itself. Tip: Clues in quotes and brackets will make it seem like your puzzle is talking to you. Symmetry: Standard crosswords have 180 degree rotational symmetry, which means that if you turn a crossword puzzle upside down, the black and white squares will still be in the same place. Trust us: There’s no better boost to your solving ego than to be able to fill in a few entries right off the bat. A 10-word clue for a three-letter solution should alert you to something. Then read it backwards. You might not see this in a Monday puzzle, but say the clue is “Black Halloween animal,” and you have confidently written in “CAT.”. Fill-in-the-blank clues tend to be easier because they have definite answers. We want you to be able to wring every drop of enjoyment out of your puzzle. There is so much more to a crossword puzzle than just a list of clues and space for you to write in the answers. No pencil or eraser required! A free daily online crossword that's not too difficult - just right for solving in your coffee break. The plural noun answer STATES might be clued as “North. To borrow a sports term, a puzzle or individual clue on topics that you know well is said to be “in your wheelhouse.” You’ll be able to find at least a few entries in each puzzle that you know. A new Boatload Puzzles crossword … These examples are just to get you started, but once you dive in and start solving, prepare to be surprised by the incredible creativity of the puzzle makers. Be on the lookout for these, because they can be amazing. BOOK can be both a noun and a verb, so you may see a noun clue or a verb clue for the word. Those are usually the easiest. So it’s worth it to practice. It just gets easier – and better – from there. That’s roughly twice as much stuff that you can solve, and it’s a good excuse to spend time together. We’ve put an “*” by the clues that adhere to the ‘cross-reference’ rule. You’re solving! Try this Monday-level mini crossword and show yourself what you can do. A clue in brackets suggests an answer that might be nonverbal: Ready to have a conversation with your crossword puzzle? We know. Still not sure looking things up is fair? Deb Amlen is the columnist and editor of Wordplay, the crossword column of The New York Times. Learn from them and move on. If you are looking for a quick, free, easy online crossword, you've come to the right place! And so on. Try to master the skills you need to get started, and then push yourself to go further into the week. Word count: The word count is the number of answers in a crossword. Solvers will often see a “?” in clues that are part of a crossword theme involving wordplay, but any clue involving wordplay could conceivably have a “?” A clue might receive a “?” depending on on how “stretchy” it is — that is, how far a clue is from being factually true. But don’t just type a clue into an online search engine; be picky about the resources you use. But the most important thing to remember is that this is when it really gets fun. Contrary to popular belief, the Sunday puzzles are midweek difficulty, not the hardest. Clue: A crossword clue is a hint that the solver must decipher to find the answer that is then entered into the puzzle grid. A clue that is in quotes can be the title of a song, a movie or a book. . It even happens to advanced solvers, so don’t let it get you down if you don’t know something or need to change an answer. Maybe. Former lover = EX + can = TIN + court = CT = EXTINCT. Simon starts at the very beginning, explaining how to solve the Quick Cryptic that appeared in The Times on 29 Dec 17. Talk about thinking outside the box! It would be LOVED, because that’s the past tense form. To make “compressed AIR,” of course. Fill: A general term for the words or phrases that fill a crossword. Get some practice on these clues. Remember, question everything. If you see a foreign language clue, expect a foreign language answer. And who doesn’t love being set up to win, even if it’s after a mental tug-of-war? Try this mini on for size. You know things your friend doesn’t know, and he or she knows things that you don’t know. This, in theory, makes it easier. Possible definitions? For reasons of succinctness, some words in clues are nearly always abbreviated, like "U.S." for United States, "U.N." for United Nations, "N.F.L." Let’s take a closer look at the clue: The word “Brave” has a capital B because it is at the beginning of the clue, but that is not the only reason it’s capitalized. Eventually, you’ll be ready for more of a challenge, and that’s when you move on to the Tuesday puzzles. And a three letter “Brave opponent,” or an opponent of an Atlanta Brave, could be a Cincinnati RED. It pays to learn both older and more modern slang and vernacular. If you are solving online or in one of our apps, however, there is an easy way to enter multiple letters in a single square. As many, many readers pointed out, we didn't have our facts straight. How to Get Started Start With the Monday Puzzles. She believes that, with enough peer pressure, anyone can learn to solve crosswords and enjoy them. See if you can keep your plurals matching. The constructor develops the theme if it’s a themed puzzle, fills the puzzle with interlocking words or phrases and writes the clues. Solve as many of the Mondays as you can before pushing yourself to Tuesday puzzles. Solving crossword puzzles is like mental yoga — both challenging and relaxing at the same time. They have essentially two ways of messing with you. Now that’s a nice Thursday theme. If there is a non-English word or phrase in the crossword, the clue will signal it by either including a word or phrase in the same language, or by connecting the answer to a place where that language is spoken or a person who might speak it. Before starting, you should know that you require a good software. Try these clues that are designed to be easy for most people: Your brain knows the answer to this: It’s POOH, the “hunny”-loving bear from the stories by A. They describe the punny phrase, not the one it’s based on, so it’s up to you to figure that out. Watch out for those capital letters! Practice Makes, If Not Perfect, a Much Better Solver. . Every crossword clue contains a definition of the answer you're looking for. Then, come back when you have enough letters filled in from the crossings to solve the rest of the entry. They really are cunning foxes, these setters. It gives you another way to get the solution. Are you getting the hang of this yet? Former or former lover or more or no more. Enjoy honing your skills with this free daily crossword edited by Stan Newman, America’s foremost expert in fine-tuning crosswords to give you the gentlest challenge to be found anywhere. How Do You Solve Crossword Puzzles? Your BFF’s wheelhouse might be crammed to the rafters with a deep knowledge of opera. According to new research, training the brain with puzzles and crosswords may well delay the onset of cognitive decline in old age, keeping the mind of an 80-year-old as sharp as someone 10 … Keep a quality … Crossing: The intersection between an Across entry and a Down one. Check the dimensions of the puzzle. Alternatively, you can turn do the Sudoku instead. Those are your ‘gimmes.’ Are there any fill-in-the-blanks clues? … The Monday Clue: “Nabisco cookie,” “Cookie with creme filling” or “‘Twist, Lick, Dunk’ cookie”, The Saturday Clue: “Snack since 1912,” “It has 12 flowers on each side” or “Sandwich often given a twist”. Entry: The answer to a clue that solvers write into the crossword puzzle. Being able to identify the definition is one of the most useful skills to have when doing cryptic crosswords … And no, the puzzle constructors and editors don’t hate you. Give your new knowledge a try with this mini. For example: Former lover can court no more (7). It would be impossible to cover every instance of clueing, but we can get you up and running. Entries that are part of a theme are called — wait for it — theme entries. Don’t believe us? Would you like to improve your mental flexibility, learn a few interesting things every day and establish bragging rights among your friends? Because as we said, crosswords are a game, and games are meant to be fun. Most daily puzzles are 15 squares by 15 squares and most Sunday puzzles are 21 squares by 21 squares. But we promise you’ll learn to love this, and the more you practice solving, the easier it will be to spot these delicious opportunities to play with words and language. And work those crossings. So if the answer is a form of the word “love,” the answer would not be LOVE, LOVES or LOVING. The surface is clearly about people like you and me, those whose better days are behind us and who now shop at M&S. Solve Boatload Puzzles' 40,000 free online crossword puzzles below. Some clues can be split between different entries in order to connect the answers. So while you might see the words MASHER (slang for a man who makes often unwelcome advances to women) and MOOLA (slang for money), you will also see BAE (slang for a boyfriend or girlfriend) and BROMANCE (slang for a close, platonic friendship between two men). Boatload Puzzles is the home of the world's largest supply of crossword puzzles. Take this quiz to familiarize yourself with some of the more common obscure crossword entries. How hard could it be? You might see clues that say “See 17-Across,” which, on the surface, is not very helpful. Just to drive the point home, let’s take a look at the difference between a Monday clue and a late-week clue for a popular crossword entry. Maybe wearing? Vive la différence, right? Here’s how this puzzled was clued: Now imagine opening your Sunday New York Times Magazine to the crossword and seeing a museum come to life. How do I solve a puzzle? Ask yourself if the words in the clues might have different meanings from the ones you think they do. They can use puns, anagrams, hidden words, common elements, letters added to familiar phrases to make new phrases, and much more. The puzzle maker and the editors put it at the beginning of the clue to capitalize on (sorry), or take advantage of, the capital letter. In fact, you never know when it could lead to something more, like a marriage proposal. Is it the rush of the “Aha!” moment, when their expectations are defied? Identifying the Main Parts of the Clue Pick out the clue's “definition." And yet, crosswords … 1. Within each clue will be a number of different … Question everything. Interlock: The crossing of entries inside the grid. Not this time. Are you ready to take your solving a step further? Don’t worry: You’ve got this. Below is how these answers were clued in this puzzle. Parlez-vous français? At first glance, cryptic crossword clues can appear daunting, but what no one ever tells you is this: the answer is right in front of you – by definition. Read carefully! First, decide how you want to solve: Are you a print-only person? If you’ve ever picked up a crossword puzzle and said to yourself, “I am not smart enough” or “I don’t have a big enough vocabulary for this,” please allow us to let you in on a little secret: You can absolutely learn to do that. Remember, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Print the online Crossword How to get the Sunday and Daily Crossword online Please make sure you are accessing the crossword puzzle from our enhanced Puzzles and Games section here: Puzzle makers have a knack for spotting oddities in our language, and when they can put enough of the same kind of oddity together, they have developed a theme set. If you need to come up with an answer for the clue “Partner of sciences,” for example, the answer would be either “Sciences and ___” or “___ and sciences.” In this case, the answer is ARTS, for “arts and sciences.”. Fun fact: In a typical American-style crossword, an entry must have at least three letters. Undies? It may also depend on which day of the week the clue appears: Early week puzzles might get a “?” to help you, whereas later week clues might not. It's right there in front of us: some (meaning "part of") larGER UNDies. If you subscribe, you get access to all the daily puzzles and the archive. In the Mini Crossword below, 1-Across and 4-Across are cross-referenced. In general, solvers will see some sort of signal that an entry is an abbreviation, an initialism or an acronym, although that signal may vary. Either the first word or the last word (or phrase, or even the whole clue)... 2. Use the timer if you want to check your solving speed. For the most part, foreign words or phrases included in puzzles they are very common words that most people will know, providing they paid attention in their high school language classes. There’s a lot to take in, but start with the rules.Diagramless crosswords follow all the rules of regular crosswords and then some.There are no isolated squares and no two-letter words.Every letter in the grid is used in both an Across and Down answer.Each clue is numbered, starting with 1 for the first clue in the top row and increasingleft-to-right and top-to-bottom. See anything you definitely know? But most commonly it will be in the longest Across and Down entries. Solving a New York Times crossword is not easy, but it should be satisfying. 4. Loading crossword puzzle. Crosswords are a game, and games are supposed to be fun. 2 Next, you can give a title to your crossword puzzle, although this step is optional. You already know more than you think you do. Partner up with this mini. Once you master a few basic strategies, you’ll find that puzzle-solving is not only possible, but highly addictive. A crossword theme is like bonus content; it is an extra puzzle-within-the-puzzle for you to solve. Let me say something that may be controversial, but it needs to be said: It’s O.K. . Occasionally, left-right or mirror symmetry is used instead. Tip: The New York Times Crossword speaks to all ages. All you have to do is follow the instructions. Language is a living, evolving thing, and the entries in the crossword tend to reflect that. . Not all crosswords have themes, but for those that do, finding them will help you be a better solver. Here are a few examples of clues with possible answers: You might also see clues in brackets. Then you look at the entry that crosses the first letter of CAT and the clue is “Honest ___ (presidential moniker).” The answer to that one is ABE, so CAT must be wrong. Easy clues don’t even have to be fill-in-the-blanks. If you’re feeling daring, you can try one of those here. Look near the beginning or end … An answer’s part of speech must match the clue’s part of speech. Some good news about crossword puzzles: A clue and answer pairing will always be fair, even if it takes solvers a while to see it. Animations by Lorenzo Fonda. It’s also frustrating if you don’t figure out what’s going on. We’ve put an “*” by the clues that adhere to the ‘plurals’ rule. When you start a puzzle, get comfortable, pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage — it’s important to stay hydrated — and then scan the clue list before solving. If a clue is plural, the answer has to be plural. for very important person. Every number in the grid is used by either an Across clueor a Down clue, or one of each.But, the puzzle starts with a blank grid, and it’s up to you to figure o… This puzzle maker made the word AIR a rebus element in eight squares, where the rebus worked for both the Across and Down clues. Brain Fact: Crosswords are fun and may improve your ability to find words, but they don’t help your brain’s overall cognition or memory A lot of people do crossword puzzles each day with the belief … Tip: Solving with another person can work to your advantage. Let’s look at one type of easy theme you might see in a Monday puzzle. They just want you to stretch your mind a bit. Some clues and answers will be present tense, some will be past tense. Your brain will fill them in even when there is no blank. 3 When you look something up, you’re learning so you’ll know it for next time. Once you’ve learned some of the shorter answers and how they are clued, you can almost be sure you’ll see them again. In the clue above: former lover often means EX. Fill-in-the-blank (FITB) clues are generally the simplest clues to solve. To create your own crossword puzzle, first click on the following link: create a crossword puzzle. Even so, it’s not that hard, especially if you work the crossings. That makes no sense at first glance, but don’t give up. (We swear this is fun.). Oh, and a willingness to have fun. Here’s a Sunday puzzle from 2009 that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City: In this puzzle, the black squares imitate the spiral shape of the halls of the Guggenheim Museum, and works of art that hang in the museum can be found throughout the puzzle by artist name, along with the name of the museum and other bonus theme content. A typical Monday clue will be very straightforward and drive you almost directly to the answer. Here are some more clue types to conquer: Tip: A question mark at the end of a clue means that it should not be taken at face value. These are the forehead slappers of crossword clues. Tip: Watch out for one of the most devious cluing traps in crosswords: Hiding a proper name at the beginning of a clue. A. Milne. No surprise here. Try this puzzle, with all fill-in-the-blank clues, and watch your brain work in ways you might not have expected: Tip: You can confirm whether an answer is right by solving the entries that cross it. And there is nothing wrong with that, especially when you’re learning how to decipher them. For example, the Spanish word ESTA, which means “this” or “it is,” might be clued early in the week as “It is, en español.” Don’t worry, the answer is in your brain somewhere. Maybe you guessed right off the bat (or you used those crossings!) Late-week clues might require more specialized knowledge about these delicious treats. If a clue is in a certain tense (such as past tense), then the answer has to be in that tense as well. Here are the answers with the reasoning behind them: Kudos to you for hanging in there with us! Work out what the solution means. Of course, some solvers say simply that figuring out a really tricky clue makes them feel smart. 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