Free Crossword Puzzle Maker
Build a crossword from your own word list — vocabulary for a lesson, terms from a training course, names for a wedding or an office party — and either solve it in the browser or print it. Type your words with their clues, press build, and the grid is worked out for you: crossings chosen for a tight fit, Across and Down numbered by the usual convention, and every clue listed with its answer length.
How the grid is built
Longest words go down first, while there is most room, and each following word is tried at every position where it shares a letter with something already placed. Each candidate position is scored on how many crossings it makes and how compact it keeps the grid, and the best one wins. The whole layout is attempted sixty times over and the best result kept, which is what Rearrange re-rolls — same words, a different arrangement.
A word is only ever placed where it genuinely crosses another. It is never laid alongside one, because two words running side by side would spell extra two-letter words reading the other way that appear in no clue list — the sort of thing that makes a puzzle unsolvable in practice.
Solving on screen
- Click a square to start typing; click it again to switch between Across and Down.
- Arrow keys move, Tab or Space flips direction, Backspace clears and steps back.
- The square you are on, the rest of its word, and its clue in the list are all highlighted together.
- Check strikes through wrong letters, Reveal fills the answers in, and the puzzle says so when it is solved.
Printing for a classroom
Print produces a clean sheet: the title, an empty numbered grid, and the Across and Down clues in two columns, with the on-screen controls left out. Tick print an answer key too and the answers follow on their own page, so you can print one copy of everything and hand out the first page.
Choosing words that fit well
- Mix the lengths. A few long words give the short ones plenty of places to cross.
- Favour common vowels. Words rich in A, E, I, O and the letters R, S, T and N interlock far more readily than ones built from J, Q, X and Z.
- Between eight and twenty words suits a page. More than that and the grid grows faster than it interlocks.
- Spaces and punctuation are dropped — “ice cream” becomes ICECREAM, as it would in any crossword.
- Any word sharing no letter with the rest is listed as left out, so nothing disappears silently.
Privacy and Security
We respect your privacy. The whole puzzle is generated in your browser — your words and clues are never sent to our servers, and nothing is stored once you close the page.
