What's a fill-in crossword?
It's a crossword with the clues surgically removed. You get the grid, you get the complete list of answers sorted by length — and that's it. Every word in the list goes into the grid exactly once, and because the words cross each other, each one you place pins down letters in its neighbours. Place the first few carefully and the rest start falling like dominoes.
The same puzzle travels under several names — fill-in, word fill-in, word fit, criss-cross — and it's been a staple of puzzle magazines for decades, usually a fat section near the back. Whatever the label, the deal is identical: all the answers, none of the clues, and a quietly satisfying logic puzzle wearing a crossword's clothes.
No clues doesn't mean no thinking
A regular crossword tests what you know; a fill-in tests how you reason. It's closer kin to sudoku than to the Sunday cryptic: every deduction is right there on the page, and nothing depends on having heard of a 1970s sitcom. That makes fill-ins wonderfully democratic — a ten-year-old, a grandparent, and someone still learning English are all playing the same game with the same information. It also makes them oddly relaxing. There's no moment of "I'll simply never know this"; there's only "I haven't spotted it yet."
How to crack one
- Milk the starter word. Every letter it donates to a crossing word is a free hint. Scan the words that cross it and ask which list words carry that exact letter in that exact position.
- Hunt the scarce lengths first. If the list has only two seven-letter words, those two slots are nearly decided already — one crossing letter usually settles which goes where. Big groups of little words come last.
- Think in positions, not words. The question is never "do I know a word meaning…?" — it's "which of these words has an E third?" Reading the list with one finger on the crossing letter is the whole technique.
- Cross words off as you place them. The player does this for you automatically (placed words get struck through in the list), and on paper it's the difference between serenity and chaos.
- Don't guess — park it. If two words genuinely fit a slot, leave it and place something else; a crossing will come back and decide it for you. Fill-ins reward patience over bravado.
Why is one word already filled in?
Tradition, mostly — printed fill-ins have opened with a starter word since forever — but it's a tradition with a job. The starter anchors the whole grid: without it, your first placement would be a coin flip, and a wrong coin flip in a fill-in can feel correct for an annoyingly long time. We pre-fill the longest word (shown in blue, and it won't budge if you type over it), so your very first move is already a deduction rather than a gamble.
Fill-in, criss-cross, word search — who's who
The names blur together, so here's the family tree. A fill-in (this page) uses a proper crossword grid — compact, symmetric, densely crossed — and gives you the word list instead of clues. A criss-cross is usually the same idea on a sprawling open grid, words scattered across white space, the style you see on teacher-made worksheets; our crossword maker builds exactly those from your own words, if you have a spelling list that needs puzzling. A word search is the odd one out: the words are already in the grid and you're just finding them — a hunt, not a construction job. Fill-ins are the thinking cousin.
For parents and teachers
Fill-ins are stealth spelling practice. A child can't place RABBIT without counting its letters, matching its crossings, and writing every letter in order — that's three passes over the spelling of one word, and it never feels like a drill. They're also the fairest puzzle in a mixed classroom, since no one is blocked by vocabulary they haven't met: the words are all right there. Open Download a puzzle pack under the puzzle for print-ready PDFs — pick a size, add a name & date line, and keep the answer key page back for yourself. Everything is free for classroom use, and we love hearing what would make it more useful.
Common questions
Where are the clues?
There aren't any — that's the puzzle! The word list on the right (below, on a phone) is everything you need. If you'd rather have clues after all, our mini crosswords are the classic experience, and our scrambled crosswords sit somewhere in between.
What if two words seem to fit the same slot?
Check the crossings — nearly always, at least one crossing letter rules one candidate out, and if it doesn't yet, placing a neighbouring word will settle it. Solve around the tie rather than through it. The Check button compares against the grid our engine built, so if you're ever stuck between finalists, it will tell you which one the puzzle had in mind.
What ages are fill-ins good for?
Confident readers from about 7 up can manage the 5×5 grids, because nothing depends on general knowledge — just careful letter-matching. The 9×9, with twenty-odd words to juggle, is honest work for an adult too. It's one of the few puzzles where the whole family genuinely can play the same grid.
Can I print these?
Yes — Download a puzzle pack just under the puzzle makes a PDF with the grid, the word list, the starter word printed in place, and an optional answer key as a separate final page. Choose 1–10 puzzles, large print if you like, and puzzles you print won't reappear online on this device.
Will I see the same puzzle twice?
No — your device remembers every fill-in you've played here and the engine refuses to deal a repeat. With more than three thousand words in the pool and fresh grids built on the spot, there's a long road ahead. Curious how the machinery works? See how we make our puzzles.