What's an arroword?
Picture a crossword that got tired of making you look things up. In a regular grid you bounce between the board and a numbered list — find 7 Down, read the clue, find 7 Down again, lose your place, repeat. An arroword deletes the list entirely. The black squares are replaced by grey clue cells, each holding a miniature clue and an arrow, and the arrow points at the exact square where the answer starts and shows which way it runs. The clue is always right where you're solving. That's the whole trick, and it's a genuinely great trick.
The format goes by a pleasing jumble of names: arrowords in British puzzle magazines, arrow words or arrowwords with an extra w, Scandinavian crosswords (or just "Scandi crosswords") after the countries that invented the style, Autodefinidos in Spain, mots fléchés — "arrowed words" — in France, and skanvord in Russia, where whole kiosks are devoted to them. Across most of Europe this, not the list-and-numbers kind, is the default crossword. English-speaking puzzlers are the odd ones out for treating it as exotic.
How to read the arrows
- Straight right (→): the answer starts in the square just right of the clue cell and runs across.
- Straight down (↓): the answer starts in the square just below and runs down.
- Bent arrows: sometimes the clue can't sit directly in line with its answer, so the arrow takes one polite step — dropping out of the cell and bending right for an across answer, or stepping right and bending down for a down answer. Follow the arrow's final direction; that's the way the word runs.
- Two clues, one cell: a busy clue cell hosts two clues, split top and bottom, each with its own arrow. Tap the half you want.
On this page you never have to squint at a tiny cell to solve: tapping any clue selects its answer and repeats the clue at full size in the bar above the grid. The in-cell text is your map; the bar is your reading copy.
Why arrowords feel easier (and why beginners love them)
Puzzle editors have known for decades that arrowords are the friendliest doorway into crosswords, and it's not because the vocabulary is simpler. It's mechanical. First, there's no lookup cost — your eyes never leave the neighbourhood of the square you're filling, so you keep your train of thought. Second, the geography does half the navigation: the clue for the word you just crossed is physically adjacent, so one answer tows you straight into the next. Solving an arroword feels less like working through a list and more like clearing a path across a board. That's also why they're moreish in a way list crosswords aren't — there's always a next clue two centimetres from your pencil.
Why our clues are short — an honest note
A clue that has to live inside a grid cell has to be brief; that's the physics of the format. Newspaper arrowords lean on one-word definition clues for exactly this reason. Ours work the same way: this page draws on the words in our hand-curated database whose clues are compact enough to sit in a cell, and the wordier clues stay home on pages like the mini crossword, where there's a proper clue list to hold them. Same words, same fair definitions — just the pocket-sized cuts.
You'll also notice our grids wear a band of clue cells along the top and left edge. That's not decoration: every answer needs a neighbouring cell to hold its clue, and the words in the first row and column have nowhere else to keep theirs. Real Scandinavian grids have exactly the same haircut — it's the signature look of the genre. In print, the newspaper versions often plug the leftover corner cells with little photos of celebrities; we plug ours with nothing and feel fine about it.
Arroword tactics
- Start at the top-left and let it cascade. Arrowords are built to flow outward from that corner — the first across and down answers hand you crossing letters for the next rank of clues, which hand you the next. Ride the avalanche.
- Solve the word, then look sideways. Every letter you place is checked by a crossing word whose clue is nearby. If a crossing looks wrong, the two clue cells involved are both within an inch of the disagreement — arrowords make error-hunting pleasantly local.
- Use the length before the clue. The arrow tells you where the answer lives, so you always know its exact length before you've read a word of the clue. "Five letters ending in W" often does more work than the definition.
- Don't fear the bent arrows. They read strangely for about two puzzles, then become invisible. The rule never changes: the final direction of the arrow is the direction of the word.
- Stuck? Change neighbourhoods. Because clues aren't ordered, there's no "1 Across" to feel guilty about. Jump to any corner that looks friendly — the grid doesn't care where you start.
Arroword, crossword, fill-in — spot the difference
A regular crossword keeps its clues in a numbered list beside the grid — same solving skill, different eye movement; that's our mini and friends. A fill-in crossword gives you the answers themselves as a word bank and asks where they go — no definitions at all (try one here). The arroword keeps real definition clues but moves them onto the board. And if you'd like the board to fight back a little, the cipher crosswords replace clues with a code to crack. All the same crossy DNA, arranged four different ways.
For parents and teachers
Arrowords are the crossword we'd hand a child (or any nervous first-timer) first. There's no list-to-grid mapping to explain, no numbering convention to teach — "the arrow points at the answer" is the entire rulebook, and the short definition clues double as tidy vocabulary practice. For paper solvers, open Download a puzzle pack below the puzzle: each arroword prints one to a page with the clues in their cells exactly as on screen, with an optional name & date line and the answer keys gathered on a separate final page. Large print is one checkbox away, and puzzles you print won't reappear online on this device. If your class wants something we don't make yet, tell us — teacher requests have built half this site.
Common questions
Are arrowords and arrow words the same thing?
Yes — arroword, arrow word, arrowword and "Scandinavian crossword" are all one puzzle, spelled by different editors. The unifying feature is in-grid clues with arrows. If a magazine calls something an arroword and the clues are in a list, demand a refund.
Why do some cells have two clues?
Grid economy. A clue cell has up to two useful edges — one answer can start to its right and another below it — so a well-packed arroword lets one grey cell serve both, split into a top and bottom half with an arrow each. It's the arroword equivalent of a semi-detached house.
Which way does a bent arrow point?
Follow its last segment. An arrow that drops down and then turns right marks an across answer starting in the cell below the clue; one that steps right and then turns down marks a down answer starting in the cell beside it. The elbow is just the clue reaching around a corner to tap its answer on the shoulder.
Why is there no numbering at all?
Numbers exist to connect a grid to a separate clue list. Arrowords have no separate list, so the numbers would connect nothing to nothing. It's oddly liberating — nobody has ever ragequit an arroword over "4 Down".
Can I print these?
Yes — Download a puzzle pack under the puzzle builds a PDF of 1–10 fresh arrowords, clues in their cells, arrows and all. Each puzzle gets a full page (in-cell clues need the elbow room), and the answer key rides along as a separate final page unless you untick it.
Will I see the same puzzle twice?
No — your device remembers every arroword you've been dealt here and refuses repeats, and the generator steers away from recently used words so consecutive puzzles feel fresh. The machinery is the same engine behind all our puzzle types, wearing its European outfit.