Master crossword puzzle solving with this tutorial guide. Learn essential tips, techniques, and strategies to become a skilled crossword solver.
How to Solve Crossword Puzzles
There are several ways to go about solving a crossword puzzle. Here are just a few tips to help you along.
Start with the clues you know:
Go through all the across clues and fill in what you are able, then fill in all the down clues you can. Following this, go back through the clues and try to solve the empty ones, using the hints provided by the now filled-in clues. Repeat the same process with the down clues, using hints from the filled-in clues for help.
Think of intersecting words:
If you are unsure of the answer you have found for a clue, try thinking of words that might intersect with it. Suppose that you believe the solution to an across clue is the word carton and the letter c would be the first letter of the solution to a down clue. If none of the possible solutions to the down clue start with a c, you can be sure that the word carton is not the correct answer to the across clue. If you can think of several possible answers to the down clue that start with c, then the word carton must be the solution to the across clue.
Try solving short words first:
Fill in all the three and four-letter clues in the crossword puzzle. The clues for these words can be among the easiest to solve and can provide hints to help you fill in the longer ones
Think less literally:
Crossword puzzle writers are sometimes tricky. The answer may come only if you do not read the clue literally but think of figures of speech and other possible things to which the clue might be referring.
Insert plural endings:
Sometimes you might not know the answer to a clue but know that whatever it is, it must be plural. Insert the s or other plural ending in the last box of the answer as it might help you with other clues.
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