Fill-In Crosswords

The crossword that hands you every answer

A fill-in crossword starts where a normal crossword ends: the complete list of answers is printed right next to the grid. What it withholds is the where. Every word on the list belongs in exactly one slot, and finding each word's rightful home — using nothing but lengths and shared letters — turns out to be a puzzle all of its own.

• 0 clues anywhere in the puzzle — the word list is everything you get, and everything you need
• 1 right slot for every listed word — each placement can be proved before you write it in
• 8,800+ hand-clued words behind the grids, shared with our micro and mini crosswords

How the game works

The word list is grouped by length, and each word is used exactly once. Because every slot in the grid crosses others, each word you place donates letters to its neighbours — and those inherited letters disqualify most of the remaining candidates for the crossing slots. Place two or three words correctly and the grid starts filling itself: each new letter narrows the next choice, until the last few words drop into the only spaces left that will take them.

Get one placement wrong, though, and the error stays invisible until some innocent word three slots away refuses to fit — which is exactly why fill-in solvers develop a habit of double-checking before they commit. The chips in the word list strike themselves through as you place them, so you always know what's still in hand.

A test of reasoning, not recall

A clued crossword can strand you: if you've never met the answer, no amount of staring conjures it. A fill-in never does that, because everything required to finish is already on the page.

• A clued crossword asks

  “What's a seven-letter word for…?”

  If the fact isn't in your head, the square stays empty. It's a quiz, and quizzes can lock you out.

• A fill-in asks

  “Which of these carries an R in fourth position?”

  That question always has a findable answer. It's a jigsaw: the pieces are all in the box, and the tabs — the shared letters — either fit or they don't.

That property makes fill-ins unusually level ground. A nine-year-old, a language learner, and a veteran cryptic solver work from the same information, and none of them can be blocked by a fact they happen not to know.

Four habits of fast fill-in solvers

After the opening move, scarcity is your compass — and the shape of that scarcity is worth seeing, because every puzzle's word bank mirrors it.

• 3 letters 525
• 4 letters 1,494
• 5 letters 2,075
• 6 letters 1,817
• 7 letters 1,557
• 8 letters 579
• 9 letters 526
• 10 letters 281

There are about 4 five-letter answers for every nine-letter one. Long words are rare, and rare means decidable — which is why the highlighted end of this chart is where a fill-in is won.

These four habits cover most of the game.

• TIDAL Milk the starter Every slot crossing the blue word has already been handed a letter and its position. Scan the matching length group for words carrying that letter right there — often only one qualifies.
• SEVEN Raid the scarce lengths Two seven-letter words contending for two slots is a decision one crossing letter settles. Eight four-letter words can wait — they'll place themselves near the end.
• ??E? Think positions, not meanings The question is never “what could this word be?” — it's “which listed word has an E third?” Read the bank with a finger on the crossing letter.
• PARK Park the ties If two words genuinely fit a slot, write neither. Place a neighbour instead and let the crossing cast the deciding vote — a wrong “probably” poisons every slot it touches.

Why one word arrives pre-written

Printed fill-ins have opened with a giveaway word for as long as the format has existed, and it isn't generosity — without it, your first placement would be pure chance, and a wrong first guess in a fill-in can survive undetected for a frustratingly long time. Ours is chosen the same way every time: the longest answer in the grid, and among equals, the one that crosses the most other slots — the word that pays out the most free letters. It appears in blue, it can't be typed over, and it means your very first move is already a deduction rather than a bet.

Prefer the hard way? The Starter word toggle above the grid deals puzzles with nothing given at all — every placement yours to prove, and your opening move a genuine hypothesis. It's the same puzzle with the stabilisers off.

Three sizes, three different solves

The 5×5 is the espresso version: a handful of words, densely crossed, usually finished in a couple of minutes — ideal for learning the rhythm of length-hunting. The 7×7 adds enough words that the scarce-length strategy starts genuinely mattering. The 9×9 is the full sorting problem: twenty-odd words across five or six length groups, where the order you attack things in makes the difference between a cascade and a slog. Your browser remembers which size you prefer, and each size keeps its own history so none of them deals you a repeat.

Built fresh on your device

There is no fixed stock of puzzles behind this page. Each press of New puzzle has your own browser assemble a genuine crossword grid from a pool of more than 8,800 hand-clued words — the same database that fills our micro and mini crosswords — and then strips the clues away, sorts the answers into the bank, and inks in the starter. Words you've seen recently are avoided, exact repeats are refused outright, and the solved counter above the grid records only honest finishes: revealing the solution shows you everything and counts for nothing.

A word about the name

This puzzle travels under more aliases than anything else on the site — fill-in, word fit, word fill, kriss-kross — the last usually printed over the sprawling, open lattices of the magazine racks rather than the compact block grids we deal here. Whatever the label on the cover, the contract is identical: all of the answers, none of the clues. And if you'd rather have the clues after all, the classic crosswords are one click away.

On paper

Fill-ins print beautifully, because the word bank replaces the clue columns and everything fits on one sheet. Open Download a puzzle pack under the grid for a PDF of up to ten fresh puzzles, each with its bank alongside, the starter word already printed in place, and the answer keys collected on a separate page you can keep back. There's an optional name-and-date line and a large-print setting.

That makes the packs a quiet favourite for classrooms: a child placing RABBIT has to count its letters, match its crossings and write it out correctly — three passes of spelling practice that never once feels like a drill. Printed puzzles join your browser's repeat history too, so they won't turn up again online.