Crossword Solver

How Pattern Matching Works

Type the letters you know in their correct positions. For squares you don't know yet, use any of these as a blank:

• _ — underscore (typical crossword notation)
• ? — question mark
• * — asterisk

The pattern length sets the word length. a_l_ is exactly 4 letters. p_z_le is exactly 6.

Examples

• c_t → cat, cot, cut, cit…
• a_l_ → able, alga, also…
• _e_t_e → settle, gentle, kettle…
• q_i_t → quiet, quilt, quint…

When to Use the Crossword Solver

The Crossword Solver fills in patterns — you know some letters and the rest are blanks. Best uses:

• Daily crossword stumpers — the New York Times, Guardian, Times, FT, and most regional dailies follow the same pattern-with-gaps shape.
• Quick crosswords — the simpler newspaper format with one-word definition clues.
• Cryptic crosswords — once you’ve worked out a few crossing letters, the pattern often narrows the wordplay candidates.
• Word puzzle apps — CodyCross, Wordscapes, daily-crossword apps.
• Hangman-style guessing games — the same pattern logic applies.
• Children’s word puzzles — fill-in-the-blank vocabulary exercises in school worksheets.

Quick Crosswords vs Cryptic Crosswords

The two big families of crossword work very differently, and the solver helps with both in different ways.

Quick crosswords use straight definition clues. “Feline (3)” wants CAT. “Domestic pet (3)” also wants CAT. The clue points directly to the answer — no wordplay. Pattern matching is genuinely useful here: once you have a couple of crossing letters, the solver narrows a broad definition to a single word.

Cryptic crosswords are a different puzzle entirely. Every clue has two parts — a definition (usually at the start or the end) AND wordplay that arrives at the same answer through a different route (anagram, hidden word, homophone, container, deletion, reversal). “Feline nabbed by cat, oddly (3)” isn’t asking for CAT plainly — it’s telling you the odd letters of “cat, oddly” (C-T) contain something to spell CAT, with FELINE as the definition. The solver won’t crack a cryptic clue for you, but once you’ve decoded the wordplay to a partial letter pattern, it helps confirm the answer.

For decoding cryptic clues specifically, see our guide to solving cryptic crossword anagrams.

Thinking Like a Setter

Crossword setters follow conventions. Once you internalise these, you can back-solve almost any clue.

British cryptic conventions are called Ximenean, after Ximenes — the pseudonym of Derrick Somerset Macnutt, who codified the rules in the 1960s. They require: every clue must have a definition and wordplay that both lead to the answer; the surface reading disguises the mechanism; and indicator words tell you which device is at play. “Confused” or “wild” indicates an anagram. “About” or “around” indicates a container. “Say” or “we hear” indicates a homophone. “Not” or “without” indicates deletion.

American cryptics (Cox & Rathvon in the Wall Street Journal, formerly at the Atlantic) follow the same Ximenean rules with slightly more permissive surface readings.

American mainstream crosswords (The New York Times under Will Shortz, then Everdeen Mason) mostly use quick-style definition clues but with wordplay themes running across the puzzle grid rather than inside individual clues.

If a clue feels impossible, ask: which family am I in? Which indicator words appear? What’s the enumeration (the number in brackets)? Does the answer have to be plural, past tense, or a phrase? The pattern solver takes over once you have any two crossing letters.

When to Use a Solver — and When Not To

Honest note: this tool exists as a nudge, not a cheat code. Two situations where using it makes the puzzle richer, and two where it kills the fun.

Good uses. When you’re stuck on a single clue after real thought — the pattern is set by crossing entries you’ve already earned, and you want to verify a guess or discover a candidate. When you’re learning the vocabulary — puzzle-specific words like ETUI, ORT, ADIT, and EWER appear constantly in crosswords but rarely elsewhere; exposure through the solver builds pattern intuition faster than a dictionary lookup would.

Bad uses. When you’ve only just started the puzzle and haven’t sat with any clue for more than thirty seconds — the “aha” moment that makes crosswords rewarding requires the struggle. When you’re using it on every clue — that’s not solving a crossword, that’s transcribing a lookup table.

The self-restraint test: if you can imagine finishing the grid, closing the paper, and feeling like the puzzle was actually solved by you — the tool has earned its keep. If not, put it down and come back to the clue tomorrow.

Pattern Tips

The pattern syntax is forgiving — any of these characters work as a blank: ?, _, *, or . (period). Use whichever you find easiest to type.

Three tactics that narrow results fast:

• Lock the crossing letters first. Even a single letter from a crossing word eliminates most candidates. Two crossings usually leaves one or two options.
• Use the Starts With and Ends With filters for clues like “___ over (begins with R)” — faster than typing the full pattern with all blanks.
• The exact-length filter matters for crosswords with multi-word answers. (3,4) means a 3-letter word followed by a 4-letter word — the total length is 7, not 8.