Quick Crossword

How to play the Quick Crossword

The Quick Crossword is a full-size puzzle in the style of the quick crosswords in British newspapers: a thirteen by thirteen grid, thirty to forty clues, and answers from three to nine letters long. It takes longer than the mini — more a cup of tea than a minute — but the clues are written the same way.

Every clue is a plain definition or a fill-in-the-blank, such as "Sand timer" for HOURGLASS or "Chip shop sauce" for VINEGAR. There are no cryptic clues, no anagrams and none of the odd little words that only ever turn up in crosswords.

The rules

Every white square takes one letter. Answers run across the grid along every other row and down the grid along every other column. The number in a square matches the clue whose answer starts there, and the figure in brackets after a clue is the length of its answer.

Unlike the mini, not every letter is shared. The black squares fall in a regular lattice, so about every other letter of an answer is crossed by another answer and the letters in between belong to that answer alone. Crossing words still hand you letters, including the first and last letter of every answer, but each clue has to be solved rather than filled in from its neighbours.

Controls

• Tap a square to put the cursor there. Its word lights up and the clue is shown above the grid.
• Tap it again to switch between the across and down word through that square, where there are both.
• Type with a keyboard, or with the keys under the grid on a phone. The cursor moves along the word by itself, then on to the next word with a gap.
• Backspace deletes, stepping back through the word when the square is already empty.
• Arrow keys move around the grid, and Enter jumps to the next clue. The arrows beside the clue do the same by tap.
• Tap a clue in the list to jump straight to its first empty square. With thirty clues this is often quicker than finding the square.

If you get stuck

The same three kinds of help as the mini. None of them ends the game, but revealed letters are counted, and a puzzle finished with one does not set a best time.

• Check marks every letter you have typed that is wrong. It does not say what the right letter is, and empty squares are never counted.
• Reveal letter fills in the correct letter under the cursor.
• Reveal word fills in the whole word the cursor is in. Revealed letters are shown in blue and cannot be typed over.

Solving tips

• Read the whole list first. There is no need to go in order. Fill in every answer that comes straight away, then work outwards from the letters they give you.
• Use the letter counts. A clue that could mean two things often fits only one of them at the right length.
• Solve the acrosses, then look at the downs. Every across answer gives the down answers crossing it their first letters, or their last, and a first letter narrows a clue a long way.
• Fill-in-the-blanks are gifts. "Central ___" is HEATING; a blank stands for the answer and is usually the quickest clue in the list.
• Match the form of the clue. A clue in the past tense has an answer in the past tense, and a plural clue a plural answer.

The daily crossword

Daily mode gives everybody the same grid on the same day, with a new one at midnight in your own time zone. Solving it adds to your streak, and you can share your result: the puzzle number, your time and whether you needed help, never the answers.

Free play makes a new grid every time from the same clues. It keeps its own best time and does not touch the daily streak, and the mini crossword's streak is kept apart from this one.

How the grids are made

Each grid is drawn fresh in your browser. Every other row and column is cut by black squares into answers of three, five, seven or nine letters, and the cuts are mirrored so that the grid looks the same turned upside down, as crossword grids traditionally do.

The words come from a bank of over two and a half thousand everyday words written for this site — the mini crossword's short words and nearly a thousand longer ones — and each has its own clue, so every answer is clued. Words are fitted in one at a time, always taking next the answer with the fewest words left that could fit it. A grid that does not come together quickly is put aside for a fresh one, so a new puzzle takes a fraction of a second. No word appears twice in a puzzle.

Common questions

How is this different from the Mini Crossword?

Mostly size. The mini is five by five, with up to ten short answers and nearly every letter shared between two of them. The quick crossword is thirteen by thirteen, with thirty to forty answers up to nine letters long and about half of its letters shared. The clues are written the same way for both.

Are the clues cryptic?

No. Every clue is a straightforward definition or a fill-in-the-blank, written so that someone who has never done a crossword can solve it.

Is there a new quick crossword every day?

Yes. The daily grid changes at midnight in your own time zone and is the same for everybody. Free play gives you as many extra grids as you like.

Can I play it on a phone?

Yes. The grid takes the width of the screen and the keys under it do the typing. The squares are smaller than the mini's, so tapping a clue in the list is often the easiest way to move about.

Does my puzzle save if I close the page?

Yes, on your own device. The daily is saved separately from free play, so starting a practice grid never loses a half-finished daily.