How To Get Better At Your Favourite Sunday Morning Hobby: Crosswords

Getting better at crosswords doesn’t seem like it’s possible from the outset. You’re either a whizz with them, or you’re not.

But it turns out that, as per usual, things aren’t as simple as that. Yes, there is some innate talent to understanding clues and plucking the perfect word from your vocabulary to put on the grid. But you can also tinker around the edges so your Sunday morning with crumpets aren’t as frustrating.

Learn The Lingo

You’ll notice when you start playing crosswords that they have a certain lingo. Designers like to express themselves in similar ways, whether you’re doing one of these puzzles in a national newspaper or a compendium book from the 1970s.

For example, if you see the phrase “abbr” in a clue, it means that the answer to the riddle is an abbreviation. For example, “Challenging digital marketing technique, abbr.” Answer: SEO.

You also want to learn some of the tactics clue writers use to make them more cryptic (and therefore, challenging). Many will use puns or double meanings, while some can also be anagrams.

There are also often fill-in-the-blank clues that get you to insert the right word in the right place to complete the sentence. For common sayings, these are easy to complete. But sometimes, you will need to finish surrounding words before you can have a good stab at the answer.

Expand Your Vocabulary

The next tip is to essentially expand your vocabulary (which is easier said than done). The more words you know, the better able you are to deploy them when prompted by clues.

Don’t worry if your vocabulary is small at the moment. As you work your way through various crossword puzzles, you will notice it expanding over time. Even if you don’t get the exact word the first time around, it will eventually come along.

Remember, crossword designers love pulling from pop culture, so it is worth learning some of these aspects, too. Many clues refer to things that require broader knowledge to understand completely.

Study Common Patterns

If you can, study common letter patterns. These are useful because crossword designers use them to create their grids due to their unique combinations. For example, it is easier to make a crossword with letters like “oreo” and “eel” than it is with “action” and “antimony.”

Once you know these patterns, you can sometimes prefill missing slots to prompt you. Then, you can have a better stab at the missing word.

Sometimes, you will also notice reused clues. Yes, they can vary from puzzle to puzzle, given the word length and surrounding letters, but they still focus you in the correct direction.

Be More Systematic

Many people just try to answer whatever clues they can when doing a crossword. However, you want to be more systematic than this. While it can work sometimes, it doesn’t work other times.

The trick is to fill in the short words you know immediately and then reevaluate clues for interacting words. Often, the presence of one or two additional letters will make it simpler for you to guess the correct answers when going up against the clock.

Try to play between 10 and 20 games, forcing yourself to go slow. See what happens when you start pre-filling and whether it helps you guess the answers to more of the longer ones. Then, when you become more confident, you can practice filling in the missing gaps and having fun with more complex words.

Start With Easy Options And Work From There

Most people start crosswords with the ones that appear in newspapers and magazines. However, these often tend to be the most challenging for more advanced players.

Fortunately, you can get entry-level crosswords that teach you the basics and train you in various thought patterns to decipher clues. These introduce you to the basic concepts so you can take these ideas with you when you tackle more challenging setups.

Easy crosswords usually contain between five and ten words of up to six or seven letters each. Most people can solve these in around 10 minutes, and sometimes less.

Then, you can progress to intermediate crosswords. You sometimes find these auto-generated on game websites, allowing you to find them more rapidly. Keep playing with different combinations until you find something that works well.

Lastly, you can move on to the most complex of all, and even challenge crosswords. These require you to have a large vocabulary and interpret often highly cryptic puzzle clues.

Practice With Online Resources

You can also try practising with online resources. These generate puzzle clues and hints using algorithms, showing you different formats and approaches more often than if you simply completed a crossword every Sunday morning. What’s nice about these is that you can calibrate the challenge level to your requirements. Making adjustments like these can help you break through to the next level.

You can find many of these apps online. Some don’t even require a download, making them even more convenient.

Learn From Mistakes

While it might be challenging, it also pays to learn from mistakes. Sometimes you will think you have a word, only to later discover you got it wrong.

When this happens, it is worth thinking through why you made the mistake. Usually, it is because you’ve misinterpreted the clue somehow.

For this reason, it is a good idea to write down a list of possible words that fit the criteria first if you aren’t immediately sure or it doesn’t click. Then, you can form surrounding words and see how the situation changes.

Once you know the word that fits the gaps, ask yourself why it is the right answer to the clue. If you don’t know, look up alternative meanings for the word or the backstory to see if you can get the hint.

So there you have it: some ways you can get better at crosswords. Once you understand how they work, you can amaze your friends and stun your family with your abilities.