Crosswords

The crossword is a word game that helps players improve their vocabulary, general knowledge and ability to understand puns, anagrams and figures of speech. This brainy puzzle was invented by British journalist Arthur Wynne in 1913, and despite a century of upgrades, has largely remained the same in its rules.

How do you play The Indian Express Crossword? The approach is simple — whether you're playing in our newspaper or online, players must fill a blank grid with horizontal and vertical words that match a list of clues. Traditionally, some of each word's letters will connect with other words on the grid. This helps solvers work out the full puzzle without much difficulty.

Our daily crossword is a 13x13 word puzzle, and we recommend you solve it one region at a time to quickly finish and boost your score. This is because online crosswords have a timer, and you get a bonus for every minute saved while solving it. For beginners, we provide a tool called 'Reveal', which can be used on any of our crossword puzzles to for hints on a single letter, word, or the entire grid. Once satisfied with your answers, you can also use the 'Check' tool to spot any mistakes.

Most crossword games mix the following types of clues. The words in capital letters are the answers you must place in the grid:

• Direct clue ('Full of excitement' | Answer: THRILLING)
• Trivia clue ('India's 14th PM' | Answer: MODI)
• Fill in the blank ('Our ______, Who art in heaven' | Answer: FATHER)
• Abbreviations ('Econ. yardstick' | Answer: GDP)
• Sounds or phrases ('May I speak?' | Answer: AHEM)
• Linked clues: To find one answer, you need the other. (Example: 'Opp. of 6-Across')

For solvers who like to play nice and slow—many enjoy their daily crossword with breaks in between—the IE crossword syncs on any device where a player is logged into their Indian Express account. You can start playing on your phone in the morning, continue on a tablet in the afternoon, and finish the puzzle on your PC by evening. We will store your online scores, daily, with zero need for redoing each game.

Interested in knowing more about word puzzles? Dive deep into the art of how to do a crossword, or take a stab at playing the world's first crossword, digitised by The Indian Express!