What are your tips for solving crossword puzzles?

Question

Crosswords are by nature a solitary activity. Do you have any special tricks or tools you use to solve them? For example, I helped create a New York Times crossword puzzle feature that incorporates search tools to conquer crossword puzzles (http://games.yahoo.com/search/nyt ). How do you approach solving a crossword puzzle?

Answer 1

Lots of tips:
1) I go for the first letter of a word up and then down - if I can get one of the two words, then having the first letter of the other sometimes jogs my memory.
2) Sometimes, it doesn't have to be the first letter.
3) Paying attention to the theme of the crossword, if any, is helpful.
4) Go for the easier ones first, then more difficult.
5) Reference: computer, dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, etc...
6) Having someone help you.
7) Going away and coming back to it later can sometimes clear the mind and help one focus better.
8) Going back to other crosswords.
9) Enjoy what you are doing.
10) Use a pencil on ones you're not sure of.
11) Place a checkmark next to the number of the hints you've gotten - it can help you focus more on the ones you haven't gotten yet.
12) If it's in a book or newspaper, sometimes the answers can be found in the publication that the crossword is in.
13) etc...
14) sometimes the answers just come out of no where - be patient.
15) sometimes working on a section of the puzzle (upper left, right or lower left or right.
16) thinking about the hint or hints with a different perspective.

Answer 2

Greetings:

I don't know how I solve them.

I just do.

I love it when the crossword puzzle is timed, such as the Chicago Sun-Times web site and the Los Angeles Times web site.

Those are also the best puzzles on Saturday and Sunday.

Those puzzles usually take about twenty minutes to solve, more or less.

But, sometimes, I might take more than an hour, although that is very rare.

Unfortunately, the New York Times and the Washington Post web sites don't include a timer with their puzzles.

Daily puzzles are always too easy, and I solve them within ten minutes.

Sometimes, if I'm a little doubtful about how a word is spelled, or if I don't know something, I'll cheat by using the Google search engine.

But, I try to do everything myself, without references of any kind.

It's more fun that way, and I learn stuff, too.

I also enjoy doing codewords and cryptograms, but it's hard to find any on the Internet, and the codeword puzzles are always too easy.

The only codeword puzzles I can find on the Internet include clues, which I hate.

I do those within two minutes.

I want my puzzles without any clues.

There are two (02) types of crossword puzzles that I'm NOT able to solve: the cryptic crossword puzzle and the English crossword puzzle.

I reckon you have to have been born and raised in England to understand the true meanings of the clues in an English crossword puzzle.

I don't know why I can't solve a cryptic crossword puzzle.

I buy the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle books, so I have something to do when I go somewhere where I have to sit around and wait, and I use an erasable blue ink ball point pen, because it's easier to see on the black and white grid.

Thank you.

John Robert Mallernee
Bard of Clan Henderson
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400

Answer 3

Some of the cryptic clues make for long phrases as answers. These do take some more time to solve but with some of the letters thrown up between the blanks by solving anagrams/short words as stated earlier, I do manage to get the long phrases too.
I don't refer to the Internet or any anagram scrambler or such other help, since I feel that crosswords have to be solved mainly by thinking, and having such modern aids (even if they reduce the time taken for solving crosswords) do not help in brain cell acivity! Crossword solving has to be taken as a sort of mental challenge - it is not a running race, like first past the post. I take to crosswords as a past time, to improve vocabulary and also to ward of diseases like Alzheimer's!
If there is a word that occurs to me whose applicability to a particular clue is not certain, then only do I refer to a dictionary for its correct meaning(s). I don't use a thesaures except when checking answers the next day. When I am unable to get the solution to a clue, I check the answer the next day and try to reason out the logic for the answer, why I did not get the answer, etc. This analysis helps in cracking clues on other days.
I started doing crosswords with a few others some years ago, but now am a 'loner' at it.
Though what I have written above is in relation to cryptic crosswords, the techniques can be applied to other 'straight' crosswords too, with a bit of variation.
Sorry this has become a long reply. Hope some people would get some ideas from this.

Answer 4

I use crossword puzzles as a learning tool to keep my mind fresh. I ususally do all the down hints first, sounds weird, but it helps me get the words across. I know this can also be done visa-versa, but you did ask how we do it ! If I can do the puzzle on Sunday, my husband is usually watching sports and I get him involved by asking him all the sports questions. At first he was surprised I did that, now he actually asks if I need his help, lol ! (He does not do crossword puzzles). Secondly, I will look up some things on the Internet, like movie info, trivia, or geography questions, but this way I am learning ( or refreshing info) as I go. If I didn't do that I would get frustrated and not finish the activity. For those of you who think this is cheating, I am not getting graded and I am not competing against anyone. Furthermore, I once bought a cryptoquote book from a bookstore. The author himself said, " if all else fails, go to the dictionary" He'd rather see the people get further along than put the book aside. Sometimes I may look up an answer that I would never, ever know, like I do not know French. So a little word here or there might possible give me a letter for another word, then that leads to another word, etc. Satisfaction comes I can get most of them done !

Answer 5

Search tools? That's cheating! I've been doing crosswords for about 33 years now and I've never seen a dictionary for crosswords. How are you going to learn new things and words if you don't work for it? I've had some puzzles that I couldn't finish in one sitting so I just put it away until later and go back and try again! Sometimes they can be very frustrating but it feels good to finally finish the darn thing! I usually do all the ones I know for sure and then try to link them with whatever letters are there.I don't necessarily have a system of all across and then all down like some.With the English language having more than one meaning and pronunciation crosswords can be tricky even for an American! When you've been working for an answer only to find out you were not using the same word as the aurthor you feel so stupid! I think crossword puzzles have saved my sanity many times. I can just immerse myself in it and forget everything else for a while. I have often wondered how long it took someone to make up one.

Answer 6

I don't refer to the Internet or any anagram scrambler or such other help, since I feel that crosswords have to be solved mainly by thinking, and having such modern aids (even if they reduce the time taken for solving crosswords) do not help in brain cell acivity! Crossword solving has to be taken as a sort of mental challenge - it is not a running race, like first past the post. I take to crosswords as a past time, to improve vocabulary and also to ward of diseases like Alzheimer's!
If there is a word that occurs to me whose applicability to a particular clue is not certain, then only do I refer to a dictionary for its correct meaning(s). I don't use a thesaures except when checking answers the next day. When I am unable to get the solution to a clue, I check the answer the next day and try to reason out the logic for the answer, why I did not get the answer, etc. This analysis helps in cracking clues on other days.
I started doing crosswords with a few others some years ago, but now am a 'loner' at it.
Though what I have written above is in relation to cryptic crosswords, the techniques can be applied to other 'straight' crosswords too, with a bit of variation.

Answer 7

I don't refer to the Internet or any anagram scrambler or such other help, since I feel that crosswords have to be solved mainly by thinking, and having such modern aids (even if they reduce the time taken for solving crosswords) do not help in brain cell acivity! Crossword solving has to be taken as a sort of mental challenge - it is not a running race, like first past the post. I take to crosswords as a past time, to improve vocabulary and also to ward of diseases like Alzheimer's!
If there is a word that occurs to me whose applicability to a particular clue is not certain, then only do I refer to a dictionary for its correct meaning(s). I don't use a thesaures except when checking answers the next day. When I am unable to get the solution to a clue, I check the answer the next day and try to reason out the logic for the answer, why I did not get the answer, etc. This analysis helps in cracking clues on other days.
I started doing crosswords with a few others some years ago, but now am a 'loner' at it.
Though what I have written above is in relation to cryptic crosswords, the techniques can be applied to other 'straight' crosswords too, with a bit of varia

Answer 8

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Answer 9

some puzzles that I couldn't finish in one sitting so I just put it away until later and go back and try again! Sometimes they can be very frustrating but it feels good to finally finish the darn thing! I usually do all the ones I know for sure and then try to link them with whatever letters are there.I don't necessarily have a system of all across and then all down like some.With the English language having more than one meaning and pronunciation crosswords can be tricky even for an American! When you've been working for an answer only to find out you were not using the same word as the a

Answer 10

Crossword puzzles aren't necessarily a solitary activity. More times than not, I'll do the Sunday New York Times puzzle with a lady friend, usually at a coffeehouse. I used to do every Sunday's NYT puzzle with my father at his home while he was alive.

The solving method is usually the same for everyone, I'd think. First, you find the "bunnies" - the easy answers - and fill them in, no matter where they appear in the puzzle. The letter clues that you get from the bunnies usually create more bunnies, and then theme answers appear. You work your way around until only two or three blanks appear and you cross your fingers and make best guesses on those. For me, you either win, or lose. Close doesn't count.

With two people solving, the Sunday puzzle takes about an hour to solve. With only one person solving, a little less.

Answer 11

This is how i began solving crossword puzzles.... I'd cut up today's puzzle and answer only the ones that i'm sure i know the answers to. Then, i'd wait for the next day's puzzle and copy all the answers of yesterdays puzzle. But i would try my best to memorize them because crossword puzzles tend to feature the same things over and over and eventually i would know the answers already even without cheating. Dictionaries don't usually carry all the words that are used in the puzzles. But these are good aids in solving them because you learn a lot of new words in the process. I do love solving crossword puzzles. But i cheat every now and then.