The Sunday desk
Daily Crossword
A small daily ritual. A bigger weekly challenge.
No daily editions of Daily Crossword are published yet. These are practice rounds: original, machine-validated and clearly labelled, but not yet through human editorial review. Difficulty labels are the author's intention, not calibrated evidence.
Master rounds are written for strong tile-game and cryptic-crossword players: obscure but valid vocabulary, denser puzzles and fewer helping hands. They are the hardest rounds here.
Gentle 7 rounds · limited preview
Demo word square 1Original demo round · Not startedDemo word square 2Original demo round · Not startedGentle quick 1Practice round · Not startedGentle quick 2Practice round · Not startedGentle cryptic 1Practice round · Not startedGentle quick 3Practice round · Not startedGentle cryptic 2Practice round · Not started
Standard 7 rounds · limited preview
Standard quick 1Practice round · Not startedStandard quick 2Practice round · Not startedStandard cryptic 1Practice round · Not startedStandard quick 3Practice round · Not startedStandard quick 4Practice round · Not startedStandard cryptic 2Practice round · Not startedStandard cryptic 3Practice round · Not started
Expert 10 rounds
Expert quick 1Practice round · Not startedExpert quick 2Practice round · Not startedExpert cryptic 1Practice round · Not startedExpert quick 3Practice round · Not startedExpert quick 4Practice round · Not startedExpert cryptic 2Practice round · Not startedExpert cryptic 3Practice round · Not startedExpert quick 5Practice round · Not startedExpert quick 6Practice round · Not startedExpert cryptic 4Practice round · Not started
Master 6 rounds · limited preview
How to play
Fill the grid from the Across and Down clues. Every crossing letter is shared, so each answer helps with the next. Quick and Cryptic are separate styles, not measures of ability.
The grid
- Each white square holds one letter. Numbers mark where answers start; one number can start both an Across and a Down answer.
- The numbers in brackets give the answer's length, for example (7), or (4,3) for two words. Type letters only: spaces and hyphens are not entered in the grid.
- Some squares belong to only one answer. Those letters come from that clue alone.
Moving and typing
- Tap or click a square to select it. Tap the selected square again, or press Space or Enter, to switch between Across and Down.
- Typing a letter fills the square and moves to the next square of the answer.
- Backspace clears the square; on an empty square it moves back and clears the one before. Delete clears without moving.
- Arrow keys move around the grid, jumping over black squares. Home and End go to the start or end of the answer.
- Tab and Shift+Tab move to the next or previous clue. The clue lists are buttons too: choose a clue to jump to it.
- The bar above the grid always shows the selected clue, and the list highlights it with a marker.
Answering by clue
- Under the grid, the Answer the selected clue box lets you type or paste a whole answer. It must have exactly the right number of letters.
- Pasting into the grid fills the selected answer from the selected square onwards.
- Wrong letters are allowed while you solve. Nothing tells you they are wrong unless you ask for a check.
Pencil
- Turn Pencil on to write tentative letters. They appear in italics with a dotted underline.
- A grid containing pencil letters is not marked; use Ink pencil letters when you are sure.
Checking and revealing
- Check a letter, the selected answer or the whole grid. Wrong letters get a cross (✗) and a slash; right ones a small tick (✓). The mark disappears when you change the letter.
- Reveal a letter, the selected answer or the whole grid. Revealed letters are marked with a dot (●) and cannot be changed.
- Checks and reveals are optional and are recorded in your result. Revealing the whole grid ends the puzzle with a revealed result.
Finishing
- When every square is filled in ink the grid is checked automatically. If something is wrong you are told that some entries need another look, without being told where.
- When everything is right the puzzle is complete. The result shows the style, your checks and reveals, and every answer with its clue. Cryptic answers include an explanation of the wordplay.
- There is no timer.
Styles and difficulty
- Quick clues are straightforward definitions. Cryptic clues each combine a definition with wordplay, as in the Cryptic Workshop.
- Gentle: familiar words and direct clues. Standard: richer vocabulary and fair misdirection. Expert: clues that need interpretation, or multi-step cryptic wordplay.
- Master: larger grids (9x9 up to 13x13) with more answers. Quick Master grids use terser, tougher definitions and Scrabble-grade vocabulary (real but less common words, never anything outside a standard dictionary). Cryptic Master grids use full-length cryptic clues, including nested wordplay (a charade with a deletion inside, an anagram of a subtraction, a homophone of a charade), double definitions and the occasional flagged cryptic definition. Every cryptic clue is mechanically checked wherever its wordplay can be checked; synonym links are reviewed by a human editor.
- Each difficulty has both styles, and each puzzle is a different grid. A small grid is not automatically easy. These labels are the author's intention and have not yet been calibrated with players.
- Grids follow a house style: rotationally symmetric, answers of at least three letters, at least half the letters of each answer crossed by another answer. The two word-square demos are engine test boards from the original pack.
Zoom
- Use the zoom buttons to enlarge the grid. A larger grid (Master grids go up to 13x13) scrolls inside its own frame, so the clues and tools stay in place. The arrow keys and Tab keep working at every size.
Example
In a quick crossword, "Head of a town council (5)" is MAYOR. Its first letter M is shared with the Down answer that crosses it.
Release status for Daily Crossword
- Engine rules and tests: passed · Pure engine, geometry, numbering and cursor tests; grid validator for crossings, coverage, connectivity and symmetry
- Browser walkthrough (keyboard, touch, refresh, check, reveal, completion): passed · tests/e2e/daily-crossword.spec.ts
- Two independent solves of every Quick and Cryptic grid (games/daily-crossword.md): open · Grids and clues are listed in docs/REVIEW-LOG.md
- Printable proof and clue database: open
- Human editorial review of every round: open
- Reviewed practice bank (10+ rounds per advertised difficulty): open
- 30 scheduled reviewed daily editions: open
- Approved dictionary membership layer: open
- Observed player pilot and difficulty calibration: open
- Manual screen-reader and real-device checks: open