The Crossword Puzzle

A crossword puzzle is a word game printed on a grid of white and black squares. You read clues and figure out the words that fit into the grid. The words go across and down, and they share some letters.

How the Crossword Was Invented

The first crossword puzzle was published in a New York newspaper in 1913. A journalist named Arthur Wynne created it. He called it a word-cross puzzle. The name was later changed to crossword.

People loved the new puzzle, and other newspapers started printing crosswords too. By the 1920s, crossword puzzles were a huge craze. Everyone wanted to solve them.

Crossword Puzzles Today

Crossword puzzles are still very popular. The New York Times crossword is one of the most famous puzzles in the world. It gets harder each day, starting easy on Monday and getting very tough by Saturday.

You can find crossword puzzles in newspapers, magazines, and apps on your phone. Solving crosswords helps you learn new words and improve your spelling. Some people do a crossword puzzle every single day.

Fun Facts

• The first crossword puzzle appeared in a newspaper in 1913.
• The New York Times has published a crossword puzzle every day since 1950.
• There are crossword puzzle competitions where solvers race to finish the fastest.

Did You Know?

During World War II, a crossword puzzle in a British newspaper accidentally contained secret code words for the D-Day invasion, causing a big scare among military leaders.