Daily Crossword
A crossword a day, with everything that came before it kept.
The archive is what makes this work as a habit rather than a novelty. A daily puzzle with no archive punishes you for being busy: miss a Tuesday and it is gone. Here a week away means a week of puzzles waiting, and that changes it from an obligation into a supply.
The hint system covers the other failure mode. Most abandoned crosswords are abandoned over one corner, and one revealed answer in that corner usually restores the whole grid.
- A new puzzle appears each day, with past ones in the archive.
- Click a square to select it. The clue appears alongside.
- Click again to switch between across and down.
- Type your answer. The cursor advances automatically.
- Tab moves to the next clue, and the hint system fills a word you cannot get.
How to play Daily Crossword
The first pass
Read every across clue once and write in only what you are certain of. Then do the same downwards.
The point is not progress, it is crossings. Six scattered certain answers put letters into twenty entries you have not properly considered, which is worth far more than one completely solved corner.
Why one word unlocks a grid
Crossword entries are interlocked, so a single revealed answer changes the constraints on four or five others at once. That is why a hint used in the right place is not really cheating: it restores the puzzle to a solvable state and you do the rest.
The archive
Because past puzzles remain, an abandoned grid is not lost. Coming back to one the next day is more productive than grinding at it, and considerably more productive than revealing it.
The syndicated dailies are on the newspaper crosswords page and the rest are under crossword.
Tips and strategy
Getting in
- Fill in the blank clues first. They have one answer and no misdirection.
- Short answers of three and four letters are the scaffolding for everything else.
- Proper nouns are gifts. A clue naming a specific thing has exactly one answer.
Reading clues
- Grammar has to match. Plural clue, plural answer. Past tense clue, past tense answer.
- Abbreviations announce themselves and tell you the answer length in advance.
- A question mark signals wordplay rather than definition.
When stuck
- If two answers disagree on a shared letter, the shorter one is usually wrong.
- Finish the section you are in before jumping elsewhere, or you waste the crossings you just earned.
- Leave it and return. This is the single most effective crossword technique and it costs nothing.
More games like this
Play our free daily puzzles See all →
Made by us. One a day, the same for everyone, no sign up.
Last updated
Frequently asked questions
Is there a new crossword every day?
Yes, and every past puzzle is archived, so missing days costs you nothing.
Can I play puzzles I missed?
Yes. The archive keeps previous days available.
What does the hint system do?
It fills in a word you cannot get. Because crossword entries interlock, one revealed answer usually restores four or five others to solvable.
How hard is it?
It sits in the middle. Clues are direct and the vocabulary is everyday.
Is it free?
Yes. No download, no account and no payment.