Introduction To Arrow Words
The difference between standard crosswords and arrowwords is more than cosmetic. The cosmetic difference is, of course, that the clues appear in the grid squares. Arrows tell you in which direction to write the answers. Arrows usually point horizontally or vertically out of the boxes, although sometimes (not at Wordy Puzzle) you might see arrows that point diagonally too, or even require you to write the word in reverse order. In all Wordy Puzzle arrowwords, you always write the answer in starting with the first letter of the word in the square the head of the arrow is in. In other words, arrows always point to the first letter in the answer run.
So, that's the cosmetic difference, along with the minor difference that clues tend to be a little shorter than standard crosswords in order to fit in the boxes.
The more significant difference is that - from the UK perspective - the grids are a lot more tightly crossed. This means that each white square is a lot more likely to appear in both a down and an across run than in a standard crossword puzzle. So, as you make progress with solving arrowwords, then you start to get lots of information about other answers in the grid. Indeed, and unlike a standard crossword, in the majority of arrowword grids you can solve quite a few words just by getting all the letters of the word from other clues, or perhaps just leaving one letter.
Therefore even more than with standard crosswords it really pays to read through the whole grid at the start and solve the easy clues that you are certain only have one answer.
And that's really all there is to know about arrow word puzzles - we hope you enjoy solving them here at Wordy Puzzle if you are new to the puzzle type, and if you're a seasoned veteran, then we hope you enjoy the added benefit that comes from using our online solving tool.
Date written: 23 Mar 2015
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