Novelty Crosswords: Missing Vowel Puzzles
The puzzle is presented as a normal crossword, but with a novel twist: instead of orthodox clues, all the answers appear under the grid, BUT without their vowels. This may sound like a fairly simple puzzle, but actually it can be really tricky.
There are two difficult elements to solving these puzzles:
Firstly, it can be hard to think of words that fit a pattern when you are only given the consonants.
Secondly, there might be lots of options, and so it is tricky to work out that you have found all possible options, and also therefore it can be hard to solve areas of the grid with confidence.
As a first step, you might like to go through and see if there are words you think only have one answer. Unlike anagram crosswords that you should start solving by tackling the shortest answers, with missing vowel / vowelless crosswords, you should start with the longest answers, as these usually have fewer valid options than the shorter words, and they are usually easier to spot.
You will definitely have several answers you can't solve immediately due to the number of possible options, so therefore your eye will need to look for clues with a unique answer to get you started.
Where you find there are several answers, be sure to consider if all options have certain letters in the same place: if so then you can place these in the grid, which might help you with other answers. Simple tactics like this are easy to spot but can make solving quite a bit easier, and not everyone uses them to maximum effect.
And that is all there is to solving vowelless crosswords. How do you find them; do you like this puzzle type and would you like to see more of them? Share your thoughts on missing vowel crosswords in the comments section as we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this crossword variant.
Date written: 27 Mar 2015
Comment on this post
You must be logged in to comment - please Register or Login
General Knowledge Solving Tips
Solving general knowledge puzzles, surprisingly enough, requires a considerable amount of general knowledge. So far, so obvious. But how do you go about getting the knowledge that you require to solve a general knowledge crossword?
Well there are...
Added: 20 Mar 2015
Dictionaries And Help With Writing Crossword Clues
For anyone who has written crossword clues, or anyone who is about to, there is one great realisation that dawns on you fairly on in your clue-writing career: dictionaries are surprisingly ineffective at helping you write crossword clues.
There are...
Added: 28 Apr 2015
Solving Double Definition Cryptic Clues
One of the main types of cryptic crossword clue is called the double definition.
With this clue type, as the name suggests, you will be presented with two different clues that both lead to the same answer.
Unlike many cryptic clues, both of the...
Added: 15 Apr 2015
Quick Crossword Writing Tips
Writing a quick crossword may sound very straightforward, but it is actually difficult to write a good puzzle. Indeed, many newspaper puzzles are written by hand by the people that also write the cryptic puzzles, you just generally do not realise it. The...
Added: 07 Jun 2015
Homophone Clues In Cryptic Crosswords
Cryptic crossword clues, as you'll have seen through this series of blog posts, come in various distinct types, and the list we've covered is not even exhaustive!
One of the clue types that people often struggle with is the homophone clue, or...
Added: 13 Apr 2015
Back to Puzzle Blog
Puzzle Types:
