Cracking Crosswords: Abbreviations (2024)

FAQs

Are abbreviations allowed in crossword? ›

Cryptic crosswords often use abbreviations to clue individual letters or short fragments of the overall solution.

How hard could it be? The Saturday crossword is actually the hardest puzzle of the week. Mondays have the most straightforward clues and Saturday clues are the hardest, or involve the most wordplay. Contrary to popular belief, the Sunday puzzles are midweek difficulty, not the hardest.

The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday. The larger Sunday crossword, which appears in The New York Times Magazine, is an icon in American culture; it is typically intended to be a "Thursday-plus" in difficulty.

Abbreviations should only be used if the organization or term appears two or more times in the text. Spell out the full term at its first mention, indicate its abbreviation in parenthesis and use the abbreviation from then on, with the exception of acronyms that would be familiar to most readers, such as MCC and USAID.

These features mean that crossword puzzles cause large areas of your cortex to be active, and stimulate new connections in your brain. The hippocampus will then remember those new connections, strengthening both your hippocampus and cortex.

They make it easier to unwind

Although it is tempting to unwind by watching the television or by reading on a tablet, the body should avoid screen time before bed. Puzzles provide a much better opportunity to relax, making it easier to fall asleep and properly switch off.

Fill in the blanks first

Every puzzle usually has a small handful of fill-in-the-blanks, so if you're looking to get an early confidence boost, scan the list of clues for fill-in-the-blanks and knock them out early.

Letter Colors in the Crossword

The letter colors that appear in the Crossword indicate the following: Black - Letters entered in the default pen mode. Gray - Letters entered in pencil mode. Blue - Letters that have been confirmed with Check.

Most of the time, abbreviations have a period at the end of two to three letters. Some common crossword abbreviations include: Fr. – French.

What does fig mean in crossword? ›

abbreviation. figurative; figuratively; figure.

Roger F Squires of Ironbridge in Telford, Shropshire, UK, has compiled and had published at least 77,854 crosswords as of 1 February 2015, equivalent to 2.34 million clues.

According to The New York Times crosswords editor, Will Shortz, “A 'rebus' in a crossword is anything that gets entered in a square that's not a single letter of the alphabet.” That can mean you have to jam more than one letter into a square or use digits.

Holding The Guinness World Records record for its size, this crossword hangs on a full 7' by 7' of wall space and has 28,000 clues for over 91,000 squares. It's a challenge that can take months, even up to a year, to complete.

Every letter is "checked" (i.e. is part of both an "across" word and a "down" word) and usually each answer must contain at least three letters. In such puzzles shaded squares are typically limited to about one-sixth of the total.

All words labeled as a part of speech (including those listed of foreign origin, and as archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, etc.) are permitted with the exception of the following: words always capitalized, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes standing alone, words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe.

RULES CLARIFICATIONS

If any tile touches another tile in adjacent rows, it must form part of a complete word crossword fashion, with all such tiles. The same word can be played more than once in a game. Pluralised words are allowed. A word can be extended on both ends within the same move e.g. TRAINER to STRAINERS.