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crossword puzzle

American  

noun

  1. a puzzle in which words corresponding to numbered clues or definitions are supplied and fitted into correspondingly numbered sets of squares, one letter per square, the words being arranged horizontally or vertically so that most letters form part of two words.

crossword puzzle British  
/ ˈkrɒsˌwɜːd /

noun

  1. Sometimes shortened to: crossword.  a puzzle in which the solver deduces words suggested by numbered clues and writes them into corresponding boxes in a grid to form a vertical and horizontal pattern

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of crossword puzzle

1910–15; cross- + word, allegedly for earlier word cross

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.