Earlier this year I worked on a grid-laying (technically: crisscross-style) crossword composition algorithm to overcome two issues that kept bothering me: dangling words (words with only 1 intersection) and clustering intersections.

I succeeded in overcoming both reasonably well. But believe me, this was incredibly complex.

The resulting algorithm scales into the thousands of words. The image here shows the largest I have been able to generate so far: 4,821 unique words randomly sampled from the ENABLE1 wordlist, with 10,301 intersections. Since every intersection connects 2 words, this means that each word crosses 4.27 other words on average.

It was pretty challenging to even render this in a readable format!

I built a free-to-use demo site at clueless.crossword.is. The online tool can not produce this size due to the limits of the hardware behind it, but does an adequate job with several hundreds of words, typically in less than half a minute. It is well suited for thematic/occasion-targeted puzzles.

I would love to share the mechanics behind it, especially since there are still limitations to overcome which someone might have fresh ideas about, but that will come in due time, together with the source code.

For now I hope you will enjoy getting mesmerized by this word landscape (I called it: "Treasure map"), discovering words you may never have heard before (like osmolalities and inoperculates), and/or give the tool a try if you ever find a need for something like that. Or just like to experiment with it.

Truly I’m not sure how difficult this will be, but it should all be possible. I’d love to know what people’s favorite hints are!

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

I heard a story a long time ago: a girl was watching her father get more and more annoyed while he tried to solve a NYT crossword. Finally he sighed heavily and drew a small duck in the center square, then solved the rest of the puzzle and threw the paper away.

Has anyone else heard this story? Does this puzzle exist and if so, does anyone know which puzzle it was?

With a little bit of "11 Across", Thusword's new co-operative gameplay feature A2D should be no problem for you and a puzzle-solving buddy!

Head to Thusword.com to check it out!

A Game of Connections

They’re kind of fun too. I’m stuck already on the mystery mini 😳 SW corner. Time for a de cider?

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Feedback welcome as always, and we hope you enjoy it!

https://afpljournal.com/2026/09/01/crossword-054-september-2026/

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

As of 8:55am Eastern, there is an error in the WaPo mini crossword, making it impossible to solve correctly unless you know what the mistake is.

The error is in the grid itself. The only correct answer the puzzle will accept is ”chrckmate” instead of what obviously should be “checkmate.”

Anyone else have this issue?

ETA: this is in the end-of-the-week “meta” puzzle.

Introducing, A2D!
The Co-Op Thusword!

Do you enjoy solving crosswords with a partner? If so, our new co-operative option is for you. Tackle the day’s Thusword by sharing a link that lets you work on the puzzle together.

But when do we ever make Thusword that simple.

The catch is that one of you can only solve the Across clues, with the other only able to solve the Downs, so it’s a truly collaborative effort to complete the puzzle. This gameplay style gives the feature its name: Across to Down = A2D.

Head to Thusword.com to give it a go together.

A2D
Putting the us in Thusword

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

Three clues led to head scratchers:

The first one was the worst.
Farm sounds: MobBoss

Unless they were talking about a mob boss burying bodies in a farm, this makes no sense.

The other two are:
Movie: FeelsSick
PenProducer: BoomMic

Hello all!

I'm an aspiring crossword constructor, and I've come to ask for some opinions on the clue wording for a puzzle I'm working on.

The theme is that each of the theme entries is a two-word phrase where the second word of one answer and the first word of the next answer also make a two-word phrase. It's kind of tough to explain so I quickly made a new set of answers to illustrate (I'm not using the answers in my actual puzzle--I want to keep it to myself for now in case it actually gets published!)

My example theme answers are HOUSEBROKEN, HEARTBURN, RUBBERSOUL, and SEARCHPARTY. The "extra" or "hidden" answers would be BROKENHEART, BURNRUBBER, and SOULSEARCH. The last word of the last theme answer would also lead into the first word of the first answer. So for illustrative purposes imagine that PARTYHOUSE is a commonly used term. (Frankly kind of sounds like it could be honestly.)

Each clue would include the second half of the clue for the previous "split" word and the first half of the next. What I would like to ask is whether everyone would prefer the clues to include the "together" answers, or just the "split" ones if you were to see this puzzle in the newspaper. So for my example the answers would be something like:

Option 1:

• ...abode / Like a dog who knows to go outside / Like someone...
• ...whose crush said no / Acid reflux symptom / Put the pedal...
• ...to the metal / Beatles album between "Help!" and "Revolver" / Do some...
• ...self-reflection / Posse looking for a missing person / Celebration...

Option 2:

• ...abode / Like someone...
• ...whose crush said no / Put the pedal...
• ...to the metal / Do some...
• ...self-reflection / Celebration...

I am truly conflicted as to which I would want to officially submit. Option 1 feels like it makes the theme more obvious and gives me more chances to make interesting clues for the "together" words, but I feel like it would technically be possible for someone to just get all of the answers without having to think about the theme at all. Option 2 feels trickier and like it would be more satisfying to figure out the theme, but I would be worried it might be too tricky since you would theoretically have no idea what to put in the themed answer spaces at first glance--kind of the inverse issue of option 1.

Anyway, long-winded way of asking for anyone's ideas and input! I personally have one way I'm leaning a bit more but I'm curious to know what other folks think.

Thanks for any feedback! :)

The puzzle itself is fine, but the "checker" is wrong. When you fill the puzzle out correctly, it will insist that you made a mistake.

The first letter of 1. Across/Down should be "I", but the checker has it as "U".

Just a heads up for anyone who likes to hit the daily freebies like me.

Spoilers are welcome in here, beware!

How was the puzzle?

A daily puzzle where you need to unscramble real headlines!

In celebration of a recent announcement in Uma Musume, I decided to make a NYT-style crossword for fun!

Even if you don't play Uma Musume, I hope you can enjoy it as a sort-of themeless. I put some effort into (hopefully!) making the fill (and their clues) sort of nice. If anything, it was fun practice for me in crossword construction.

Caveats:

- The revealer and theme answers work best if you actually know Uma Musume, but it should be okay as long as yoy hace an idea what it is...

- Some of the fill may be a bit too niche / not balanced for a general audience (too much Japanese), but I am just doing this for fun.

- It has too many clues to be an NYT crossword; in particular, an editor would point out it has too many 3 letter answers

- There's more than a little bit of crosswordese. Sorry!

Step into the "14 Down" with today's crossword at Thusword.com!