A new random crossword every time, or the daily crossword. Three sizes, check and reveal, a timer, and progress saved in your browser.
This free online crossword puzzle makes a new grid each time you press New puzzle, using a number from 1 to 999,999 as the seed. The seed picks words from a list of about 5,200 common English words, each with a short clue. A Small puzzle uses 8 words, Medium uses 14 and Large uses 20. The words are laid out by the same generator as the Crossword Maker on this site: the first word goes across, and every later word must cross a word already in the grid on a shared letter. Two words never touch side by side, so every run of letters in the grid is a word with a clue. The generator tries 8 different word sets for the seed and keeps the layout that fits the size best, then the one with the fewest empty squares. A Medium grid is often around 14 by 14 squares. There are no black squares and the grid is not symmetric like a newspaper crossword.
The Daily puzzle uses today's date on your device (for example 2026-10-15) as its seed, so everyone who opens it on the same day gets the same crossword at the same size. Tomorrow's date gives a new one. A new random puzzle is named by its number, such as Crossword puzzle #482913. Your letters and your time are saved in this browser for each puzzle, so closing the tab and coming back to the same puzzle carries on where you stopped. The page keeps the last 24 puzzles and forgets older ones. Clear empties the grid and sets the timer back to 0, and Reset returns the options to their defaults.
Click a square to select its word, and click the same square again to switch between Across and Down. Type to fill in the letters: the cursor moves on inside the word, Backspace clears a square or steps back, the arrow keys move between squares, and Tab and Shift+Tab jump to the next or previous clue. Press Escape to leave the grid so Tab moves around the page again. On a phone the clue for the selected word stays in a bar at the bottom, with arrows for the previous and next clue, and the keyboard opens when you tap a square. Check marks the filled squares in the letter, the word or the whole puzzle as right or wrong; a wrong square is struck through, so it does not rely on colour. Reveal fills in the right letters, and the finish message says that some letters were revealed. Clear and Reveal puzzle ask you to press the button a second time. The timer pauses while the tab is hidden. A time of 75 seconds shows as 1:15 and 3725 seconds as 1:02:05.
The clues are dictionary definitions, not cryptic clues and not trivia. Each one is the first short gloss of the word's most common sense in WordNet 3.1, a lexical database from Princeton University, shortened to 80 characters, with the letter count after it. WordNet is copyright 2011 by Princeton University and is used under its licence. Which words count as common comes from SCOWL, the word lists by Kevin Atkinson. A clue never contains its answer or a form of it, and the list leaves out proper nouns, offensive words and abbreviations, but a definition can still read oddly for a word with several meanings. Answers in a generated puzzle are 4 to 10 letters. The tool does not make themed puzzles or tell you whether a clue is fair.
The Crossword Maker has a Play this crossword online link under its result. It opens this page with your words, clues and layout seed packed into the part of the address after the # sign. Browsers never send that part to a server, and this page removes it from the address bar as soon as it has read it, so a shared crossword does not appear in page statistics. The link holds up to 8,192 characters, which is enough for the 40-word limit of the Maker when the clues are short, and the page checks everything strictly: letters A to Z only, clues up to 120 characters and a valid seed. A link that fails the check opens a normal puzzle with a notice. Your own words are not stored in this browser, so reloading the page opens a new puzzle instead; copy the link again to replay it.
Choose Small (8 words), Medium (14) or Large (20) and press New puzzle. Click a square, type your answer and use the clue bar to see the clue and its letter count. When every square is right the page shows your time, for example 7:42.
Yes. Press Daily puzzle. The seed comes from your device's local date, such as 2026-10-15, so everyone with that date gets the same crossword at the same size. Around midnight in different time zones, two people can have different dates.
Yes, in this browser only. The letters, the revealed squares and the time are saved for each puzzle, and the last 24 puzzles are kept. Opening the same daily puzzle, or the same puzzle number, carries on. Clearing site data in your browser removes it.
Check only marks your filled squares as right or wrong, in the letter, word or whole puzzle, and changes nothing. Reveal fills in the right letters. Reveal puzzle ends the game, and the finish message then says that some letters were revealed.
Yes. Build it in the Crossword Maker and press Play this crossword online. Your words travel in the part of the link after the # sign (up to 8,192 characters), which no server receives. Reloading the game page opens a new puzzle, so keep the link.
No. Your answers and any shared crossword are processed in your browser and not uploaded. The only download is the clue list of about 95 KB. Letters and time are saved in this browser's storage. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never your letters or words.