History Of Crossword Puzzle And Interesting Facts – Word Finder by WordsRated (2024)

Games such as Scrabble and Wordle have become household names with millions of worldwide players of all ages, due to their emphasis on word building. However, crosswords were the original daily word puzzles to beat, first available through newspapers and becoming one of the most well-loved pastimes.

• The first ever crossword puzzle published was diamond shaped with no black squares, appearing in the newspaper New York World in December 1913.
• Its first clues were “what bargain hunters enjoy” (answer: “sales”) and “to govern” (answer: “rule”).
• As of 2015, British crossword compiler Roger Squires was awarded the Guinness record for “most crosswords compiled in a lifetime”, after publishing at least 77,854 crosswords (around 2.34 million clues).
• The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) has been won by Dan Feyer 9 times, which is more than any other competitor.
• The largest ever published crossword had 66,666 clues in total (33,018 across, 33,648 down) and was created by Japanese company Nikoli.
• However, when it comes to unpublished crosswords, Bulgarian Hristo A. Yonitsov spent 14 years creating a crossword with 93,769 clues, using more than 1000 sheets of paper.
• The first ever crosswords that only contained cryptic clues were pioneered by Edward Powys Mathers in the 1920s.
• The longest word ever used as an answer within a cryptic crossword puzzle was the name of the Welsh village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch which contains 58 characters.

Timeline of crosswords

1873: Predecessor games to crossword puzzles, such as “double diamond puzzles” were released in the American children’s magazine St. Nicholas.

1913: Arthur Wynne publishes the first ever recognized crossword puzzle in the New York World called “word-cross”. Featuring most of the characteristics we associate with the modern game, its name was later reversed by an illustrator. Crosswords eventually became a weekly feature in the newspaper.

1916-17: Crosswords began being published in other well-known newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Pittsburgh Press.

1924: Dick Simon and Lincoln Schuster released “The Cross Word Puzzle Book”, which was the first ever crossword collection. It became an instant success and sold over 100,000 copies in 3 months. This success helped kickstart the publishing company Simon & Schuster, who still release similar titles.

1933: The term “crossword” first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary.

1942: The New York Times Crossword is first published, to provide a distraction away from the news that was surrounding World War II. This would later become the most famous of all widely circulated US crosswords.

1968: Cryptic crosswords were finally imported to the US after first appearing in the UK in the mid-1920s. However they failed to become as popular in the US as the UK, despite multiple attempts to market them.

1978: Nancy Schuster wins the first ever American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which featured 149 contestants.

2006: The documentary film “Wordplay” is released, featuring crossword constructors such as Will Shortz and Merl Reagle, alongside famous enthusiasts. The second half of the movie also looks at the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) event.

2014: The New York Times online games section is released, featuring the famed NYT Crossword plus a smaller crossword variant, The Mini.

If you are struggling to find a crossword answer that matches the squares available, check out WordsRated’s Word Finder. Simply enter the word length plus any letters contained and click search to find a list of potential solutions from our dictionary.

Variations of crosswords

Due to the widespread popularity of crosswords, many different variations have been created, influenced by their standard gameplay but with a slightly different objective. These variations are usually found in publications such as newspapers, magazines and puzzle books.

Acrostic puzzles: Players must answer crossword style hints but each letter solved will correspond to a certain square on the grid. As letters and words are solved, players should begin to see where new letters should be placed, eventually revealing hidden phrases or sentences.

Arrowords: The clues to each solvable word is placed within the grid itself, in what would normally be the black squares in a crossword. Due to its format, clues are often concise and limited to just a few words.

Codebreaker: Players will see a crossword style grid in which each letter corresponds to a number, with some already filled in. Using pattern recognition skills and without the use of clues, trial and error is needed to fill in blank squares, which will eventually reveal all words and potentially a hidden phrase.

Cross-number puzzle: This type of game is targeted towards those who prefer mathematics rather than language games. The format of the game is exactly the same as a crossword, but the clues relate to the answers to sums, or general knowledge involving numbers such as the date of an event.

Cryptic crosswords: With a much higher difficulty level, cryptic crosswords are typically aimed at seasoned crossword solvers. Although the game has the same format, the hints given have hidden meanings, often requiring the player to ignore what each clue says on the surface level.

Diagramless crosswords: A stripped back version of a crossword where the majority of black squares and clue numbers are removed. Starting with the information already given before moving on to other hints, players must solve the clues and also calculate where words begin and end, filling in the black squares themselves as they go along.

Fill-in crosswords: This popular game is all about placement on the white squares rather than solving hints. Players are given all of the solutions at the start and it is up to them to figure out exactly where the words should go on the grid, based upon the letters contained in each word and how they fit together.

American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT)

Will Shortz first founded The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1978, which makes it the oldest official US crossword event. As its reputation has continued to grow, it is now seen as the most important American crossword tournament, taking place in either February, March or April each year.

• As of 2024, there have been six winners that have won the ACPT multiple times, these are:
  • Dan Feyer (9 times).
  • Tyler Hinman and Jon Delfin (7 times each).
  • Douglas Hoylman (6 times).
  • David Rosen (4 times).
  • Trip Payne (3 times).
• The ACPT has also been won by a woman on three different occasions, Nancy Schuster (1978), Miriam Raphael (1979) and Ellen Ripstein (2001).
• As of 2024, a total of 17,288 contestants have taken part in the ACPT across 45 different tournaments.

Memorial Award

This award is given to people who have demonstrated lifetime achievement in crossword construction. Founded in 1916, it was styled “The MEmoRiaL Award” after Merl Reagle, one of the first American crossword constructors who was able to make a living just through building puzzles.