Crossword

How to spell crossword

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crossword

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crossword mean?

1. nounA word puzzle in which intersecting words are entered into a grid of squares from numbered clues.

Crossword in a sentence

• He finished the crossword in the morning paper over breakfast.

• She keeps a pencil by the sofa for the evening crossword.

Where does crossword come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent English compound formed from two native words: 'cross', which traces back to the Latin crux meaning a 'cross' or 'stake' but had long been naturalised into Old English, and 'word', a Germanic term that has meant a unit of speech since the earliest English. The compound describes a puzzle in which words intersect, crossing one another at shared letters. The very first such puzzle was published by journalist Arthur Wynne in the New York World newspaper in December 1913, where it was originally called a 'word-cross'; the two halves were soon swapped to give us 'crossword'. By the 1920s the crossword had become a worldwide craze, and the word settled into its modern fixed form. Because both parts stay fully spelled and simply join together, the spelling is logical once you remember it is a single closed word rather than two.

How the word is built

• cross (intersecting, lying across)
• word (a unit of language)