Try this mini crossword level Monday and show yourself what you can do. Just click here to get your solution. Deb Amlen is a columnist and editor of Wordplay, the New York Times crossword puzzle column. She believes that anyone with enough peer pressure can learn to solve crossword puzzles and enjoy them. Fill: A general term for words or phrases that fill a crossword puzzle. Input: The answer to an index that solvers write in crossword puzzles. Entries that are part of a topic are called – wait – topic entries. Fun fact: In a typical American-style crossword, an entry should have at least three letters. Are you ready to have a conversation with your crossword puzzle? Try this one.
Language is a living, evolving thing, and crossword entries tend to reflect that. Therein lies a challenge: older resolvers must keep up with the evolution of our language, and younger ones must learn words that may have fallen out of favor long before they were born. If you`ve ever picked up a crossword puzzle and thought, “I`m not smart enough” or “I don`t have enough vocabulary for this,” let us let us let you in on a little secret: not all crosswords have themes, but for those who do, it will help you find them, to be a better solver. This is another good reason to know them. It`s the frontal applause of crossword cues. The puzzle maker and editor play with words and phrases in a clue like this, so clear your mind and think about other ways the words might be used in the clues. Challenge everything. Take this quiz to familiarize yourself with some of the most common obscure crossword entries. Now imagine opening your Sunday New York Times crossword magazine and seeing a museum come to life. Here is a puzzle from Sunday 2009 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York: Word count: Word count: Word count is the number of responses in a crossword puzzle. In a New York Times crossword, a 15×15 square themed puzzle usually has no more than 78 answers.
A 15×15 puzzle without a theme has a maximum word count of 72 answers. A 21×21 Sunday puzzle usually has no more than 140 answers. Themes can be placed anywhere in the crossword puzzle, depending on the creativity of the puzzle builder. However, it will be more common in longer Across and Down entries. Do you want to improve your mental flexibility, learn a few interesting things every day and assert yourself with your friends? Solving crossword puzzles is like mental yoga – challenging and relaxing at the same time. Plus, it`s fun, especially if you enjoy words and puns as much as I do. I believe that with patience and practice, anyone can learn to solve crossword puzzles. Once you master a few basic strategies, you`ll find that solving puzzles is not only possible, but also addictive. So let`s get started! Kudos to you for staying here with us! If you have practiced, you should be able to tackle at least one puzzle during the week, if not a later puzzle. All it takes is a dedication to resolution and learning. Oh, and the willingness to have fun. Because like I said, crossword puzzles are a game, and games should be fun.
To keep things fair between builder, editor and solver, most crossword puzzles follow certain predictable “rules”. We`re going to walk you through some of these rules, and if you practice using the minis included in this guide, you`ll go much further in your solution. Let me say something that may be controversial, but it has to be said: it`s okay to look for something when solving a crossword puzzle. If the builder and crossword puzzlers are feeling particularly evil, you might see an innocent clue like this for a three-letter entry: But don`t limit yourself. Try to master the skills you need to get started, and then push yourself to continue in the week. Here`s all that sneaky and delicious pun in the clues, and therein lies the fun of solving crossword puzzles. Mini crosswords: 5×5 crosswords offered by the New York Times. For comparison, the size of a Times crossword puzzle is 15×15 and that of Sunday crossword puzzles is 21×21. The daisy flowers close tightly at sunset, then open again in the morning. It was this behavior that led to the name “daisy,” from Old English for “eye of the day.” Thus, the daisy could be described as a “rested” plant.
And someone who is rested attacks the day “fresh as a daisy”. Interesting, isn`t it? Tip: Look for one of the most sneaky clues to crossword puzzles: hide a proper name at the beginning of a clue. Some crossword puzzles contain a number of entries that all have something in common. Puzzle makers have a knack for recognizing curiosities in our language, and if they can gather enough of the same kind of curiosity, they have developed a thematic set. As a resolver, you can not only solve crossword puzzles, but also assemble the topic. Symmetry: Standard crossword puzzles have 180-degree rotational symmetry, which means that if you turn a crossword upside down, the black and white squares are always in the same place.