Crossword strategy: how to get better at solving

Solve the grid, not the clue list

The single biggest improvement available to most solvers is to stop working through the clues in order. A crossword is a network: every answer you enter changes the difficulty of four or five others, so you should always be working where you have the most letters.

1. Sweep for gifts. Go through all the clues once and fill only what you are sure of.
2. Then work outwards from the letters you have, not down the list.
3. Trust the crossings. A letter confirmed by two answers is almost certainly right.

Level 1 — Basic: get the first third of the grid

1. Start with the long answers

Long entries have the most crossings, so solving one pays off several times. They are also easier than they look: fewer words fit a long pattern.

2. Use the length, always

The bracketed number rules out most candidates before you start thinking. "Large body of water (5)" is not ocean if you already have an L in the middle.

3. Fill in the plurals and the tense

A clue in the plural gives a final S more often than not; a clue in the past tense usually gives -ED. Those letters cross other answers and are frequently the crack that opens a corner.

4. Learn the crosswordese

Every tradition has words that appear far more often in grids than in life, because their letters are convenient: ERA, ORE, ALOE, ETUI, OLEO, ASEA, EPEE. You do not need to like them; you only need to recognise them.

5. Come back later

A clue you cannot see now is often obvious after two crossing letters arrive. Stalling on one clue is the commonest way to waste ten minutes.

Level 2 — Intermediate: reading cryptic clues

A cryptic clue is not a riddle. It has a strict structure: a definition at the beginning or the end, and wordplay covering the rest. Both point at the same answer, so every clue gives you two chances.

The standard devices

How to attack one

1. Find the definition. It is at one end. Read the clue as if the first word were the definition, then as if the last word were.
2. Look for a signal word — anagram indicators are the easiest to spot.
3. Count letters. The wordplay has to account for exactly the right number.
4. Prove it. If you cannot explain both halves, the answer is probably wrong — which is useful, because a wrong answer will block a whole corner.

Level 3 — Advanced: speed, themes and the hardest corners

Solve for the pattern, not the word

Experienced solvers read _ R _ T _ and see candidates before reading the clue. Train it deliberately: cover the clue, look at the pattern, and list what fits. In American-style grids, where every letter is checked, this alone will finish whole sections.

Find the theme early

In a themed puzzle, the long answers share an idea, and spotting it converts the hardest entries into the easiest. Look for: unusually long entries, answers that seem oddly phrased, a title, and repeated letter patterns. One themed answer usually gives you the rest.

Break a stuck corner

When a corner will not yield:

• Question your certainties. A stuck corner almost always contains one wrong answer that felt right. Check the letters that are not crossed elsewhere.
• Try the unlikely letters. If a pattern needs a J, Q, X or Z, very few words fit — that is a gift, not a problem.
• Re-parse the clue. In cryptics, read the definition from the other end.
• Say it out loud. Homophones and hidden words are much easier to hear than to see.

Speed technique

• Never stop typing. Fill the pattern you are confident of and correct later, rather than pausing to be certain.
• Work Across and Down together. After each answer, immediately read the two or three clues it crosses.
• Keep the cursor moving. Use Tab to skip rather than re-reading the whole list.

Using the tools without wasting the puzzle

Check costs you the least: it tells you something is wrong without telling you what is right, and it is the fastest way to find the bad answer blocking a corner. Reveal letter is the next step, and gives you a crossing you can build from. Reveal word ends the puzzle's usefulness for that corner — save it for a genuine dead end.

Where solvers lose time

1. Working clue by clue instead of around the letters you have.
2. Writing in a guess and never questioning it.
3. Ignoring the answer length.
4. Staring at one clue for minutes instead of moving on.
5. In cryptics, chasing the surface meaning rather than looking for the definition and the signal word.
6. Revealing a whole word when checking one letter would have unstuck the corner.

Common questions