crossword puzzle

noun

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.

Origin of crossword puzzle

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for crossword puzzle

crossword puzzle

noun

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 patternSometimes shortened to: crossword

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

Word Origin and History for crossword puzzle

January 1914, from cross (adj.) + word + puzzle. The first one ran in the "New York World" newspaper Dec. 21, 1913, but was called word-cross.