The puzzle is created by various freelance constructors and has been edited by Will Shortz since 1993. The crosswords are designed to increase in difficulty throughout the week, with the easiest on Monday and the most difficult on Saturday.[6] 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 "Wednesday or Thursday" in difficulty.[7] The standard daily crossword is 15 by 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword measures 21 by 21 squares.[8][9] Many of the puzzle's rules were created by its first editor, Margaret Farrar.
History
Although crosswords became popular in the early 1920s, The New York Times initially considered them frivolous, calling them "a primitive form of mental exercise", and did not run a crossword until February 15, 1942, in its Sunday edition.[10][11] It was published under a pseudonym Farrar occasionally used, "Anna Gram".[12]
The motivating impulse for the Times to finally run the puzzle (which took over 20 years even though its publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was a longtime crossword fan) appears to have been the bombing ofPearl Harbor; in a memo dated December 18, 1941, an editor conceded that the puzzle deserved space in the paper, considering what was happening elsewhere in the world and that readers might need something to occupy themselves during blackouts.[11] The puzzle proved popular, and Sulzberger himself authored a Times puzzle before the year was out.[11]
In 1950, the crossword became a daily feature. That first daily puzzle was published without an author line, and as of 2001 the identity of the author of the first weekday Times crossword remained unknown.[13]
There have been four editors of the puzzle. Farrar edited the puzzle from its inception in 1942 until 1969. She created many of the rules that have become standard, such as creating the grid, limiting the number of black squares, creating a minimum word length of three letters, requiring grids to have rotational symmetry and be an odd number of squares by an odd number of squares, and forbidding unchecked squares.[14][15] The second editor was Will Weng, former head of the Times's metropolitan copy desk. Weng served until 1977, and Eugene T. Maleska, the third editor, until 1993. The current editor is Will Shortz. In addition to editing the Times crosswords, Shortz founded and runs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament as well as the World Puzzle Championship (where he remains captain of the U.S. team); has published numerous books of crosswords, sudoku, and other puzzles; authors occasional variety puzzles (also known as "second Sunday puzzles") to appear alongside the Sunday Times puzzle; and serves as "Puzzlemaster" on the NPR show Weekend Edition Sunday.[16][17] There have also been two interim editors of the puzzle: Mel Taub from September 6 to November 20, 1993, after Maleska's death; and Joel Fagliano, since March 2024, while Shortz has been on medical leave.[18][19]
Times puzzles have been collected in hundreds of books by various publishers, most notably Random House and St. Martin's Press, the current publisher of the series.[24] In addition to appearing in the printed newspaper, the puzzles also appear online on the paper's website, where they require a separate subscription to access.[25] In 2007, Majesco Entertainment released The New York Times Crosswords game, a video game adaptation for the Nintendo DS handheld. The game includes over 1,000 Times crosswords from all days of the week. Various other forms of merchandise featuring the puzzle have been created, including dedicated electronic crossword handhelds that just contain Times crosswords, and a variety of Times crossword-themed memorabilia, including cookie jars, baseballs, cufflinks, plates, coasters, and mousepads.[24]
Style and conventions
The New York Times example crossword grid
Will Shortz does not write the Times crossword himself; a wide variety of contributors submit puzzles to him. A full specification sheet listing the paper's requirements for crossword puzzle submission can be found online or by writing to the paper.
The Monday–Thursday, and usually Sunday, puzzles have a theme. This is often some sort of connection between at least three long across answers, such as similar types of puns, added letters, or hidden synonyms. These puzzles often have entries known as "revealers", phrases that (often punnily) relate to the themed entries and may help explain the link. Notable dates such as holidays or anniversaries of famous events are often commemorated with an appropriately themed puzzle, although only two are routinely commemorated annually: Christmas and April Fool's Day.[26]
The Friday and Saturday puzzles, the most difficult, are almost always themeless and "wide open", with fewer black squares and more long words. The maximum word count for a themed weekday puzzle is normally 78 words, while the maximum for a themeless Friday or Saturday puzzle is 72; Sunday puzzles must contain 140 words or fewer.[9] Given the Times's reputation as a paper for a literate, well-read, and somewhat arty audience, puzzles frequently reference works of literature, art, or classical music, as well as modern TV, movies, or other touchstones of popular culture.[9]
The puzzle follows a number of conventions, both for tradition's sake and to aid solvers in completing the crossword:
Nearly all the Times crossword grids have rotational symmetry: they can be rotated 180 degrees and remain identical. Rarely, puzzles with only vertical or horizontal symmetry can be found; yet rarer are asymmetrical puzzles, usually when an unusual theme requires breaking the symmetry rule. Starting in January 2020, diagonal symmetry began appearing in Friday and Saturday puzzles. This rule has been part of the puzzle since the beginning; when asked why, initial editor Margaret Farrar is said to have responded, "Because it is prettier."[11]
Any time a clue contains the tag "Abbr." or an abbreviation more significant than "e.g.", the answer will be an abbreviation (e.g., [M.D. org.] for AMA).[6]
Occasionally, themed puzzles will require certain squares to be filled in with a symbol, multiple letters, or a word, rather than one letter (so-called "rebus" puzzles). This symbol/letters/word will be repeated in each themed entry. For example, the December 6, 2012, puzzle by Jeff Chen featured a rebus theme based on the chemical pH scale used for acids and bases, which required the letters "pH" to be written together in a single square in several entries (in the middle of entries such as "triumpH" or "sopHocles").[27]
French-, Spanish-, or Latin-language answers, and more rarely answers from other languages are indicated either by a tag in the clue giving the answer language (e.g., [Summer: Fr.] for ETE) or by the use in the clue of a word from that language, often a personal or place name (e.g. [Friends of Pierre] for AMIS or [The ocean, e.g., in Orleans] for EAU).[6]
Clues and answers must always match in part of speech, tense, number, and degree. Thus a plural clue always indicates a plural answer (and the same for singular), a clue in the past tense will always be matched by an answer in the same tense, and a clue containing a comparative or superlative will always be matched by an answer in the same degree.[6]
The answer word (or any of the answer words, if it consists of multiple words) will not appear in the clue itself. Unlike in some easier puzzles in other outlets, the number of words in the answer is not given in the clue—so a one-word clue can have a multiple-word answer.[28]
The theme, if any, will be applied consistently throughout the puzzle; e.g., if one of the theme entries is a particular variety of pun, all the theme entries will be of that type.[9]
In general, any words that might appear elsewhere in the newspaper, such as well-known brand names, pop culture figures, or current phrases of the moment, are fair game.[29]
No entries involving profanity, sad or disturbing topics, or overly explicit answers should be expected, though some have sneaked in. The April 3, 2006, puzzle contained the word SCUMBAG (a slang term for a condom), which had previously appeared in a Times article quoting people using the word. Shortz apologized and said the term would not appear again.[30][31] PENIS also appeared once in a Shortz-edited puzzle in 1995, clued as ["The __ mightier than the sword"].[32]
Spoken phrases are always indicated by enclosure in quotation marks, e.g., ["Get out of here!"] for LEAVE NOW.[28]
Short exclamations are sometimes clued by a phrase in square brackets, e.g., {[It's cold!]} for BRR.[28]
When the answer can only be substituted for the clue when preceding a specific other word, this other word is indicated in parentheses. For example, [Think (over)] can be MULL, since "mull" only means "think" when preceding the word "over" (i.e., "think over" and "mull over" are synonymous, but "think" and "mull" are not necessarily synonymous otherwise). The point here is that the single word "think" can be replaced by the single word "mull", but only when the following word is "over".
When the answer needs an additional word in order to fit the clue, this other word is indicated with the use of "with". For example, [Become understood, with "in"] can be SINK, since "Sink in" (but not "Sink" alone) means "to become understood." The point here is that the single phrase "become understood" can be replaced with the single phrase "sink in", regardless of whether it is followed by anything else.
Times style is to always capitalize the first letter of a clue, regardless of whether the clue is a complete sentence or whether the first word is a proper noun. On occasion, this is used to deliberately create difficulties for the solver; e.g., in the clue [John, for one], it is ambiguous whether the clue is referring to the proper name John or to the slang term for a bathroom.[28]
Variety puzzles
Second Sunday puzzles
In addition to the primary crossword, the Times publishes a second Sunday puzzle each week, of varying types, something that the first crossword editor, Margaret Farrar, saw as a part of the paper's Sunday puzzle offering from the start; she wrote in a memo when the Times was considering whether or not to start running crosswords that "The smaller puzzle, which would occupy the lower part of the page, could provide variety each Sunday. It could be topical, humorous, have rhymed definitions or story definitions or quiz definitions. The combination of these two would offer meat and dessert, and catch the fancy of all types of puzzlers."[11] Currently, every other week is an acrostic puzzle authored by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, with a rotating selection of other puzzles, including diagramless crosswords, Puns and Anagrams, cryptics (a.k.a. "British-style crosswords"), Split Decisions, Spiral Crosswords, word games, and more rarely, other types (some authored by Shortz himself—the only puzzles he has created for the Times during his tenure as crossword editor).[25] Of these types, the acrostic has the longest and most interesting history, beginning on May 9, 1943, authored by Elizabeth S. Kingsley, who is credited with inventing the puzzle type, and continued to write the Times acrostic until December 28, 1952.[33] From then until August 13, 1967, it was written by Kingsley's former assistant, Doris Nash Wortman; then it was taken over by Thomas H. Middleton for a period of over 30 years, until August 15, 1999, when the pair of Cox and Rathvon became just the fourth author of the puzzle in its history.[33] The name of the puzzle also changed over the years, from "Double-Crostic" to "Kingsley Double-Crostic," "Acrostic Puzzle," and finally (since 1991) just "Acrostic."[33]
The Mini
The Times Online also publishes The Mini, a daily crossword by Joel Fagliano, which is 5×5 Sunday through Friday and 7×7 on Saturdays, and is significantly easier than the traditional daily puzzle. The Mini is popular, but has also been criticized, sometimes harshly, for its comparative simplicity—with one review of the game in Slate magazine titled "Utter Disgrace to the NYT Crossword Brand".[34][35] Other "mini" and larger 11×11 "midi" puzzles are sometimes offered as bonuses.
Other puzzles
As well as a second word puzzle on Sundays, the Times publishes a KenKen numbers puzzle (a variant of the popular sudoku logic puzzles) each day of the week.[25] Other games from The New York Times are available online or on the NYT Games app, such as the word search variant Spelling Bee, Wordle, and Connections. The Times also offers a monthly bonus crossword with a theme relating to the month.[25]
Records and puzzles of note
Fans of the Times crossword have kept track of a number of records and interesting puzzles (primarily from among those published in Shortz's tenure), including those below. (All puzzles published from November 21, 1993, on are available to online subscribers to the Times crossword.)[25]
Fewest words in a daily 15x15 puzzle: 50 words, on Saturday, June 29, 2013, by Joe Krozel;[36] in a Sunday puzzle: 118 words on June 11, 2023, by Sam Ezersky.[37][38]
Most words in a daily puzzle: 86 words on Tuesday, December 23, 2008, by Joe Krozel;[39] in a 21x21 Sunday puzzle: 150 words, on June 26, 1994, by Nancy Nicholson Joline and on November 21, 1993, by Peter Gordon (the first Sunday puzzle edited by Will Shortz).[40]
Fewest black squares (in a daily 15x15 puzzle): 17 blocks, on Friday, July 27, 2012, by Joe Krozel.[41][42]
Most prolific author: Manny Nosowsky is the crossword constructor who has been published most frequently in the Times under Shortz, with 241 puzzles (254 including pre-Shortz-era puzzles, published before 1993),[43] although others may have written more puzzles than that under prior editors. The record for most Sunday puzzles is held by Jack Luzzatto, with 119 (including two written under pseudonyms);[44] former editor Eugene T. Maleska wrote 110 himself, including 8 under other names.[44]
Youngest constructor: Daniel Larsen, aged 13 years and 4 months.[45]
Oldest constructor: Bernice Gordon was 100 on August 11, 2014, when her final Times crossword was published.[46] (She died in 2015 at the age of 101.)[47] Gordon published over 150 crosswords in the Times since her first puzzle was published by Margaret Farrar in 1952.[48]
Greatest difference in ages between two constructors of a single puzzle: 83, a puzzle by David Steinberg (age 16) and Bernice Gordon (age 99) with the theme AGE DIFFERENCE.[49][50]
15-letter-word stacks: On December 29, 2012, Joe Krozel stacked five 15-letter entries, something never before or since achieved. Krozel, Martin Ashwood-Smith, George Barany and Erik Agard have stacked four 15-letter entries in a puzzle. Since 2010, Krozel, Ashwood-Smith, Kevin G. Der, and Jason Flinn have stacked two sets of four 15-letter entries in a puzzle.[51]
Lowest word count for a debut puzzle: 62 words, on Saturday, June 1, 2019, by Ari Richter.
Clinton/Bob Dole puzzle from 1996
A few crosswords have achieved recognition beyond the community of crossword solvers. Perhaps the most famous is the November 5, 1996, puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell, published on the day of the U.S. presidential election, which has been featured in the movie Wordplay and the book The Crossword Obsession by Coral Amende, as well as discussed by Peter Jennings on ABC News, featured on CNN, and elsewhere.[16][17][52][53] The two leading candidates that year were Bill Clinton and Bob Dole; in Farrell's puzzle, one of the long clue/answer combinations read [Title for 39-Across next year] MISTER PRESIDENT. The remarkable feature of the puzzle is that 39-Across could be answered either CLINTON or BOB DOLE, and all the Down clues and answers that crossed it would work either way (e.g., [Black Halloween animal] could be either BAT or CAT depending on which answer you filled in at 39-Across; similarly [French 101 word] could equal LUI or OUI, etc.).[52] Constructors have dubbed this type of puzzle a Schrödinger or quantum puzzle after the famous paradox of Schrödinger's cat, which was both alive and dead at the same time. The first Schrödinger puzzle in the Times, by Ralph G. Beaman, appeared eight years earlier, and as of October 2024, 19 Times puzzles have used a similar trick.[54]
In another notable Times crossword, 27-year-old Bill Gottlieb proposed to his girlfriend, Emily Mindel, via the crossword puzzle of January 7, 1998, written by noted crossword constructor Bob Klahn.[55][56] The answer to 14-Across, [Microsoft chief, to some] was BILLG, also Gottlieb's name and last initial. 20-Across, [1729 Jonathan Swift pamphlet], was A MODEST PROPOSAL. And 56-Across, [1992 Paula Abdul hit], was WILL YOU MARRY ME. Gottlieb's girlfriend said yes. The puzzle attracted attention in the AP, an article in the Times itself, and elsewhere.[56] Other Times crosswords with a notable wedding element include the June 25, 2010, puzzle by Byron Walden and Robin Schulman, which has rebuses spelling I DO throughout, and the January 8, 2020, puzzle by Joon Pahk and Amanda Yesnowitz, which was used at the latter’s wedding reception.
On May 7, 2007, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a self-professed long-time fan of the Times crossword, collaborated with noted crossword constructor Cathy Millhauser on an online-only crossword in which Millhauser constructed the grid and Clinton wrote the clues.[22][57] Shortz described the President's work as "laugh out loud" and noted that he as editor changed very little of Clinton's clues, which featured more wordplay than found in a standard puzzle.[22][57] Clinton made his print constructing debut on Friday, May 12, 2017, collaborating with Vic Fleming on one of the co-constructed puzzles celebrating the crossword's 75th Anniversary.[58]
The Times crossword of Thursday, April 2, 2009, by Brendan Emmett Quigley,[59] featured theme answers that all ran the gamut of movie ratings—beginning with the kid-friendly "G" and finishing with adults-only "X" (now replaced by the less crossword-friendly "NC-17"). The seven theme entries were GARY GYGAX, GRAND PRIX, GORE-TEX, GAG REFLEX, GUMMO MARX, GASOLINE TAX, and GENERATION X. In addition, the puzzle contained the clues/answers of [Weird Al Yankovic's "__ on Jeopardy"] for I LOST and ["I'll take New York Times crossword for $200, __"] for ALEX. What made the puzzle notable is that the prior night's episode of the US television show Jeopardy! featured video clues of Will Shortz for five of the theme answers (all but GARY GYGAX and GENERATION X) which the contestants attempted to answer during the course of the show.
Controversies
The Times crossword has been criticized for a lack of diversity in its constructors and clues. Major crosswords like those in the Times have historically been created and edited primarily by older white men.[60] Less than 30% of puzzle constructors in the Shortz Era have been women.[61] In the 2010s, only 27% of clued figures were female, and 20% were of minority racial groups.[62]
In January 2019, the Times crossword was criticized for including the racial slur "BEANER" (clued as "Pitch to the head, informally", but also a derogatory slur for Mexicans).[63] Shortz apologized for the distraction this may have caused solvers, claiming that he had never heard the slur before.[64]
In 2022, the Times was criticized after many readers claimed that its December 18 crossword grid resembled a Nazi swastika.[65] Some were particularly upset that the puzzle was published on the first night of Hanukkah.[66] In a statement, the Times said the resemblance was unintentional, stemming from the grid's rotational symmetry.[67] The Times was also criticized in 2017 and 2014 for crossword grids that resembled a swastika, which it both times defended as a coincidence.[65][68]
See also
Wordplay (2006 documentary film about the crossword)
A crossword is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.
A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta, New Zealand, and South Africa. Compilers of cryptic crosswords are commonly called setters in the UK and constructors in the US. Particularly in the UK, a distinction may be made between cryptics and quick crosswords, and sometimes two sets of clues are given for a single puzzle grid.
The National Puzzlers' League (NPL) is a nonprofit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, it is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world. It originally hosted semiannual conventions in February and September of each year, but conventions are now held annually, in July.
William F. Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor who is the crossword editor for The New York Times. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting his career at Penny Press and Games magazine, he was hired by The New York Times in 1993. Shortz's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the country's oldest and largest crossword tournament.
The New York Times Magazine is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazine is noted for its photography, especially relating to fashion and style.
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in February, March, or April. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2023 event set an attendance record with more than 750 competitors.
Games World of Puzzles is an American games and puzzle magazine. Originally the merger of two other puzzle magazines spun off from its parent publication Games magazine in the early 1990s, Games World of Puzzles was reunited with Games in October 2014.
An acrostic is a type of word puzzle, related somewhat to crossword puzzles, that uses an acrostic form. It typically consists of two parts. The first part is a set of lettered clues, each of which has numbered blanks representing the letters of the answer. The second part is a long series of numbered blanks and spaces, representing a quotation or other text, into which the answers for the clues fit. In some forms of the puzzle, the first letters of each correct clue answer, read in order from clue A on down the list, will spell out the author of the quote and the title of the work it is taken from; this can be used as an additional solving aid.
Wordplay is a 2006 documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon. It features Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, crossword constructor Merl Reagle, and many other noted crossword solvers and constructors. The second half of the movie is set at the 2005 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), where the top solvers compete for a prize of $4000. Wordplay was the best reviewed documentary film of 2006, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Jeremiah Farrell was an American mathematician and academic who was professor emeritus of mathematics at Butler University in Indiana. He constructed Will Shortz's favorite crossword puzzle, the famous 1996 "Election Day" crossword in The New York Times. He wrote puzzles for various books and newspapers including Scott Kim's puzzle column for Discover magazine.
Margaret Petherbridge Farrar was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times (1942–1968). Creator of many of the rules of modern crossword design, she compiled and edited a long-running series of crossword puzzle books – including the first book of any kind that Simon & Schuster published (1924). She was described the Los Angeles Times as "the grand dame of the American crossword puzzle."
Merl Harry Reagle was an American crossword constructor. For 30 years, he constructed a puzzle every Sunday for the San Francisco Chronicle, which he syndicated to more than 50 Sunday newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Times, The Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, the New York Observer, and the Arizona Daily Star. Reagle also produced crossword puzzles for AARP: The Magazine and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Beaner is a derogatory slur originally from the United States to refer to individuals from Mexico or of Mexican American heritage. It originates from the bean being a staple ingredient in Mexican cuisine, such as Salsa Verde Soup or Bean Quesadilla.
Manny Nosowsky is a U.S. crossword puzzle creator. A medical doctor by training, he retired from a San Francisco urology practice and, beginning in 1991, has created crossword puzzles that have been published in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other newspapers. Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor for The New York Times, has described Nosowsky as "a national treasure" and included four Nosowsky puzzles in his 2002 book Will Shortz's Favorite Crossword Puzzles. Since Shortz became editor of the Times crossword in November 1993, Nosowsky has published nearly 250 puzzles there, making him by far the most prolific published constructor in the Times. Nosowsky is frequently chosen to produce puzzles for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
"Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" is the sixth episode of the twentieth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 16, 2008. In the episode, Lisa discovers that she has a talent for solving crossword puzzles, and she enters a crossword tournament. Lisa's feelings are hurt when she discovers that Homer bet against her in the championship match.
Lollapuzzoola is a crossword-solving tournament held annually on a Saturday in August. Founded in 2008 by Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht, it is the second-largest crossword tournament in the United States, and the only major tournament in New York City. The term "Lollapuzzoola" was coined by Amanda Yesnowitz, as a play on the Lollapalooza music festival. Lollapuzzoola 17 took place on August 24, 2024, and was cohosted by Brian Cimmet, Brooke Husic, and Sid Sivakumar.
Bernice Gordon was an American constructor of crosswords. She created puzzles for many publications after beginning her career in the early 1950s, and holds the record as the oldest contributor to The New York Times crossword puzzle. A 1965 Times puzzle she wrote is credited as the first rebus puzzle, fitting an exclamation point into a single square. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2014, just a few weeks after the 100th anniversary of the crossword. Her last puzzle was published in the Los Angeles Times on December 2, 2014.
The New York TimesSpelling Bee, or simply the Spelling Bee, is a word game distributed in print and electronic format by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. Created by Frank Longo, the game debuted in a weekly print format in 2014. A digital daily version with an altered scoring system launched on May 9, 2018.
Michael David Sharp, known by the pseudonym Rex Parker, is an American blogger known for writing about the New York Times crossword puzzle on his blog, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. Outside of crosswords, Sharp teaches English at Binghamton University in New York.
Harold Theodore Bers was an American advertising executive, poet, and crossword puzzle constructor. He is credited with inventing the themed crossword puzzle while making puzzles for The New York Times.
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