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Crossword Help
Crossword puzzles can be hard to solve for newcomers to the game, but this page will give you a few tips on how to improve! But always remember, there are no hard set rules to crossword puzzle construction and sometimes the puzzles won’t abide by some of these standard rules.
Wordplay
Some crossword puzzle makers try and trick you with the clues, making your brain think of one thing while another tangentially related answer is actually the real answer. And example would be a clue like “Works with pupils?”, at first you think it would be optometrist, or something releated to the eye field, but the answer was “DILATES”.
Clues with an abbreviation
Any clue that has an abbreviation in the clue, normally has an abbreviation has an answer. This isn’t ALWAYS the case, but as a general rule it works. An example would be a clue like “Lab subj.”, which a possible answer is “SCI”.
Learn short words with lots of vowels
When a crossword constructor is trying to make a puzzle there are certain three or four letter words with lots of vowels that show up a lot. This is because they need to use them to make their more complicated words fit into the grid. Try and learn and remember these words, some examples are:
- ALI
- ALEE
- ERA
- ELAL
- ETC
- EMU
- SMEE
- STYE
- ORE
Clues with e.g.
E.g. stands for exempli gratia, latin for “for example” and if a clue ends with e.g. this means that the clue is an example of what the answer is. A sample clue of this would be “Freddy Krueger, e.g.”, the answer for that being “SLASHER”.
Plural Clues
Typyically if a clue is plural the answer to it will also be plural. An example is the answer for the clue "Abode" is "HOME", while the clue "Abodes" is "HOMES".
Themes
Many puzzles have themes to them where many of the clues are related to the overall theme. Sometimes the theme is stated in the puzzle title, but sometimes they don't and you have to figure it out based on the different clues the creator.