Online crosswordCross Wordz — one of ten games in Padamz
Most crosswords assume you have already done a thousand crosswords. This one does not: it is small, every clue is one plain line of English, and there are no cryptic conventions, no crosswordese and no anagram indicators to learn before you can start.
Play Cross Wordz →How Cross Wordz works
A compact grid of crossing words. Tap a square to select its across or down entry, tap again to switch direction, then type. The clue for whatever you have selected stays on screen, so you are never scrolling between a grid and a numbered list to remember what you are answering.
Clues are definitions, not wordplay. If the answer is a fruit, the clue says so in ordinary words. That makes it a crossword you can hand to somebody who has never finished one.
Three things that help
- Fill the shortest entries first. Three- and four-letter words have far fewer candidates, and each one you place hands a letter to two others.
- A crossing letter you are sure of beats a whole entry you are guessing at. Work outward from certainty, not from the top-left corner.
- Stuck on an entry? Leave it. The crossing words will give you two or three of its letters and it usually falls out on its own.
Questions
Are the clues cryptic?
No. Every clue is a straight one-line definition. There is no wordplay to decode and nothing to learn before you start.
How long does one take?
A few minutes. The grid is deliberately small — this is a coffee-break crossword, not a Sunday broadsheet.
Do I need an account?
No. It runs in the browser with no sign-up, and keeps working offline once it has loaded.
Where it sits in Padamz
Padamz is ten word games in one place, free and with no account. The spine is a daily word puzzle in ten languages — Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, English, Spanish and Dutch — with one hidden word a day and six tries at it. Cross Wordz is one of the nine games around it, and none of them are locked: you can play any of them the moment you arrive. There is an Android app and an iPhone app as well, and everything keeps working offline once it has loaded.
Play Cross Wordz →