Login:

Password:





Who's online? | Login | Leaderboard | Anagrams

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 "checked" means that it appears in both an across and a down clue, so the one 'checks' the other: if you aren't sure what the answer is from an across clue, then you can get it from the down clue that checks it, or vice versa, depending on your interpretation.

As such you have two chances to get each and every letter in the grid, and therefore you can theoretically solve the puzzle from just all the across clues or all the down clues: in theory you never have to look at both sets of clues. Whether anyone ever has done, or does, solve puzzles from just one set of clues would be quite interesting. Certainly when you look at easy US crosswords then it would definitely be possible and realistic to solve the puzzles this way. With the harder sort of puzzle that you get in newspapers, whether this could be done is more doubtful as normally you need to work both sets of clues to have a chance of finishing the puzzle successfully.

The grids have radial symmetry - that is 180-degree rotational symmetry. They also have a much higher percentage of white / answer squares than black / shaded squares. Certain newspapers will have strict limits in place as to how many black squares are allowed in a grid, and sometimes they disallow them forming 2x2 blocks, for instance.

Typically two-letter words are banned in grids, and some put limits on word lengths and the total number of clues allowed in the grid. With a US crossword, usually the answer lengths are left out, and if the answer is made up of multiple or hyphenated words, this is not indicated - it is up to the solver to work this out, which can make those clues trickier.

As for grid sizes, most publications enforce the rule that the grid must be of odd dimensions, with 15x15 being the most common for daily puzzles. Some even have set patterns that compilers need to work from.
Date written: 01 May 2015



Comment on this post

You must be logged in to comment - please Register or Login

Other Blog Posts You Might Find Interesting...

Learning To Solve Codewords
Learning to solve codewords takes patience: they are one puzzle type that you definitely get better at over time, and can find extremely difficult the first few puzzles you solve. After that you will find tactics that work for you, and will be able to...
Added: 26 Mar 2015


Does Brain Training Work?
Does brain training work? This is a big question, and there have been several tests and surveys carried out - some more scientific than others - to try and establish the truth. Anecdotally at least, several people say that they have experienced...
Added: 23 Apr 2015


100 Hat Riddle Interview Question Solution
A riddle or lateral thinking puzzle that has existed in a variety of guises for a long period of time has recently been featured in the news, both because it is initially baffling but also because there have been reports of some companies using this...
Added: 25 Feb 2016


Solving Aids And Solving Crossword Clues
When it comes to solving crosswords, where do you stand on the debate with regard to using solving aids? Some people think that there is something "wrong" with using solving aids - in the very particular sense that it is a form of cheating, whilst for...
Added: 30 Apr 2015


Cryptic Definition Clues In Cryptic Crosswords
One of the rarer clue types to be encountered when solving cryptic crosswords is called the "cryptic definition". How does this vary from the other clue types, and what does it mean? Well, it varies from them in this very important way: there is...
Added: 12 Apr 2015




Back to Puzzle Blog


Puzzle Types:
Arrow word Puzzles
Pangram Puzzles
General Knowledge Crosswords
Quick Crosswords
Wordwheels
Word Ladders
Word Fit
Skeleton Crosswords
A to Z Puzzles
Codewords
Cryprograms Online
Every Letter Counts