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Lester Markel, Sunday editor of The New York Times, insisted that puzzles appearing in that paper contain words linked to the news.

Sometimes every word will have some given prefix, suffix, or part in common, and only the rest of the word will actually fill the spaces in the diagram: (rat)ion, (rat)chet, etc. Again, some clues will be omitted altogether but a direction given that the words thus neglected belong to a particular class: jewels, for example, or words in a quotation. Many of the puzzles in this category are quite difficult. A number of words in one puzzle may bear upon some announced theme, such as music, sports, literature, or geography. Some puzzles employ abstruse definitions, puns, and anagrams. The general type of crossword has also been subject to variation. These include: (1) an asymmetrical scattering of squares (2) a plain diagram with no squares canceled and the ends of words marked simply by a thick line (3) pictorial designs, either in outline containing the diagram or in line inside the diagram, or a combination of both and (4) diagramless puzzles, with no squares cancelled and no word ends marked. Though the majority of puzzles have the form of symmetrical patterns of shaded or blacked-out squares within a rectangle, there are many variations. Advocates claim the puzzles are both a pastime and an interesting means of improving the vocabulary. Scholars have even gone so far as to make them for Latin. The Sunday Times of London ran perhaps the best-known puzzle.Ĭrosswords in various forms are found in almost every country and language. Soon almost all daily newspapers in the United States and Great Britain had a crossword feature of some kind. By 1923, crosswords were being published in most of the leading American newspapers, and the craze soon reached England. It appeared as only one of a varied group of mental exercises, but it struck the fancy of the public. The first modern crossword puzzle was published on December 21, 1913, in the New York World’s Sunday supplement, Fun. In the United States, however, the puzzle developed into a serious adult pastime. They were of an elementary kind apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children’s puzzle books and various periodicals. The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century.

The words cross each other, or interlock, which gives the puzzle its name. Into each of the blank squares of the diagram a certain letter of the alphabet is to be inserted, forming the words fitting the numbered definitions or clues. This diagram is accompanied by two lists of numbered definitions or clues, one for the horizontal and the other for the vertical words, the numbers corresponding to identical numbers on the diagram. A crossword puzzle consists of a diagram, usually rectangular, divided into blank (white) and cancelled (black, shaded, or crosshatched) squares. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!Ĭrossword puzzle, popular form of word puzzle.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.

ABOUT CROSSWORDS HOW TO

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About crosswords