Crossword Solver
Stuck on a clue in today's grid? This solver searches 25,000 clue and answer pairs taken from published crosswords, two ways: type the letters you already have and let it fill the shape, or type the clue itself and see what it has answered before. Answers are ranked by how often real puzzles have used them, so the familiar fills come first.
Search by pattern
Type the letters you know, in their squares, with a ? for every square you do not know yet. The pattern's length is the answer's length, and answers in this archive run from 2 to 8 letters. Results update as you type.
Type a pattern to start: the letters you know, ? for the rest.
How the answers are ranked
Every answer shows how many times published puzzles have used it across the whole archive, with up to three of the clues it has answered, most used first. A word constructors reach for every week outranks a one-off, which is the right order for a stuck grid: try the familiar fill before the exotic one. Pattern results show at most 200 answers and clue results at most 100; the counts above the list always give the full number found.
About this archive
The archive holds 25,000 clue and answer pairs gathered from published newspaper crosswords, each pair confirmed in two independent corpora before joining the collection. Answers run from two to eight letters. It only knows what has actually been clued in print: a brand-new coinage or a long theme entry will not be here, and the crossing letters in your grid still have the final say. The browsable collection behind this tool is our Crossword Clues and Answers index, and today's daily puzzles start from the board.