History Of Crossword Puzzle And Interesting Facts

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• However, when it comes to unpublished crosswords, Bulgarian Hristo A. Yonitsov spent 14 years creating a crossword with 93,769 clues, using more than 1000 sheets of paper.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.

Year	Contestants	Winner	Second place	Third place
1978	149	Nancy Schuster	Eleanor Cassidy	Murray Leavitt
1979	154	Miriam Raphael	Nancy Schuster	Merl Reagle
1980	128	Daniel Pratt	Miriam Raphael	Joel Darrow
1981	125	Philip Cohen	Joel Darrow	John Chervokas
1982	132	Stanley Newman	Philip Cohen	Joseph Clonick
1983	146	David Rosen	Stanley Newman	Ellen Ripstein
1984	115	John McNeill	David Rosen	Stanley Newman
1985	110	David Rosen	Rebecca Kornbluh	Eric Schwartz
1986	130	David Rosen	Rebecca Kornbluh	Ellen Ripstein
1987	118	David Rosen	Ellen Ripstein	Ed Bethea
1988	137	Douglas Hoylman	Jon Delfin	Ellen Ripstein
1989	134	Jon Delfin	Douglas Hoylman	Ellen Ripstein
1990	143	Jon Delfin	Ellen Ripstein	Douglas Hoylman
1991	149	Jon Delfin	George Henschel	Douglas Hoylman
1992	172	Douglas Hoylman	Ellen Ripstein	Trip Payne
1993	192	Trip Payne	Ellen Ripstein	Douglas Hoylman
1994	216	Douglas Hoylman	Al Sanders	George Henschel
1995	232	Jon Delfin	Douglas Hoylman	Ellen Ripstein
1996	239	Douglas Hoylman	Trip Payne	Jon Delfin
1997	255	Douglas Hoylman	Ellen Ripstein	Trip Payne
1998	251	Trip Payne	Jon Delfin	Ellen Ripstein
1999	254	Jon Delfin	Douglas Hoylman	Al Sanders
2000	286	Douglas Hoylman	Ellen Ripstein	Trip Payne
2001	310	Ellen Ripstein	Patrick Jordan	Al Sanders
2002	401	Jon Delfin	Zack Butler	Al Sanders
2003	495	Jon Delfin	Trip Payne	Al Sanders
2004	478	Trip Payne	Jon Delfin	Al Sanders
2005	455	Tyler Hinman	Trip Payne	Al Sanders
2006	498	Tyler Hinman	Kiran Kedlaya	Ellen Ripstein
2007	698	Tyler Hinman	Al Sanders	Francis Heaney
2008	699	Tyler Hinman	Trip Payne	Howard Barkin
2009	684	Tyler Hinman	Trip Payne	Francis Heaney
2010	644	Dan Feyer	Howard Barkin	Anne Erdmann
2011	655	Dan Feyer	Tyler Hinman	Anne Erdmann
2012	655	Dan Feyer	Tyler Hinman	Anne Erdmann
2013	590	Dan Feyer	Anne Erdmann	Tyler Hinman
2014	588	Dan Feyer	Tyler Hinman	Howard Barkin
2015	568	Dan Feyer	Tyler Hinman	Howard Barkin
2016	576	Howard Barkin	Dan Feyer	David Plotkin
2017	618	Dan Feyer	Joon Pahk	Tyler Hinman
2018	688	Erik Agard	Dan Feyer	David Plotkin
2019	741	Dan Feyer	Joon Pahk	David Plotkin
2020*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2021	1032	Tyler Hinman	Erik Agard	David Plotkin
2022	474	Tyler Hinman	Dan Feyer	David Plotkin
2023	774	Dan Feyer	Paolo Pasco	Tyler Hinman

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. 

Year	Winner(s)
2016	Maura Jacobson
2017	Manny Nosowsky
2018	Nancy Salomon
2019	Mike Shenk
2020*	N/A
2021	Patrick Berry
2022	Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
2023	Rich Norris
2024	Andrea Carla Michaels