Tips On Solving A-Z Puzzles
The best thing to do in order to solve an A-Z puzzle is to scan the grid, and look for the easy pickings: there will always be some placements, and at times a significant number, where there is only one option for a valid word to be formed, and so those letters can be placed in by you the solver. Remember that each letter can only appear once, so where you have a word with multiple blanks and there is a word that fits that perhaps has an E in TWO of the blanks, note that word cannot be placed here as it would break the key rule.
As you start picking off the low hanging fruit, the player tool will automatically cross off the letters that you have used, to save you keeping track of it in your head. Knowing which letters you have placed and haven't placed is the key to solving A-Z puzzles, as there will be several words that have multiple options initially. By narrowing down the options you whittle down what can be placed in each of those, until you may be left with only one option.
Scan all runs of the grid if you are still unsure and try not to guess, in most A-Z puzzles there will be a run somewhere with only one option.
As you come towards the end of the solve, you are often left with just the less frequent letters, so if the word doesn't pop out to you and you have, say, four letters left, it is viable to go through each option in your head and see if any of them are words: if there is just one word, then that's what your answer.
And how about the last word in? If it has just one letter, then congratulations, place the final letter left and you've solved the puzzle! But quite often, you'll find the final word is the one you had least information about to start with, and so it might have two or three letters that are blank. In this instance you are left with essentially an anagram, and so should solve it like any other anagram in order to find what the final word is and complete the A-Z puzzle successfully.
Date written: 02 Apr 2015
Comment on this post
You must be logged in to comment - please Register or Login
New Fun Games Added Today
You told us you wanted more word games, so we listened!
Today and yesterday mark the start of two new fun games in the words section - and as with all the fun games here at Wordy Puzzle, they are completely free to play for all members.
The games...
Added: 29 Jul 2015
What Makes A Valid Crossword Grid?
What constitutes a valid crossword grid varies from country to country. Here we focus on what counts as a valid grid in the UK.
- Firstly, the grid dimensions should be odd, eg 13 x 13 or 15 x 15; these are the two most common grid sizes. In the vast...
Added: 07 Apr 2015
Writing A Themed Kriss Kross Puzzle
Writing a themed puzzle is generally more difficult than writing a non-themed puzzle.
This is usually because there are relatively few words on a theme, and therefore this will restrict the options for the particular puzzle type you are creating. This...
Added: 28 Jun 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
What Makes A Valid US Style Crossword Grid?
All the puzzles on Wordy Puzzle, at the time of writing, use the British style of crossword grid and also spelling. Here we look at what the US style of crossword grid is like.
With US grids, every white square in the grid is checked. The term...
Added: 01 May 2015
Back to Puzzle Blog
Puzzle Types:
