Crossword
A crossword (or crossword puzzle) is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.
For other uses, see Crossword (disambiguation).Crosswords commonly appear in newspapers and magazines. The earliest crosswords that resemble their modern form were popularized by the New York World in the 1910s. Many variants of crosswords are popular around the world, including cryptic crosswords and many language-specific variants.
Construction[edit]
American-style crosswords[edit]
In typical themed American-style crosswords, the theme is created first, as a set of symmetric long across answers will be needed around which the grid can be created.[76][77] Since the grid will typically have 180-degree rotational symmetry, the answers will need to be also: thus a typical 15×15 square American puzzle might have two 15-letter entries and two 13-letter entries that could be arranged appropriately in the grid (e.g., one 15-letter entry in the third row, and the other symmetrically in the 13th row; one 13-letter entry starting in the first square of the 6th row and the other ending in the last square of the 10th row).[77][78] The theme must not only be funny or interesting, but also internally consistent. In the April 26, 2005 by Sarah Keller mentioned above, the five themed entries contained in the different parts of a tree: SQUAREROOT, TABLELEAF, WARDROBETRUNK, BRAINSTEM, and BANKBRANCH. In this puzzle, CHARTER OAK would not be an appropriate entry, as all the other entries contain different parts of a tree, not the name of a kind of tree. Similarly, FAMILY TREE would not be appropriate unless it were used as a revealer for the theme (frequently clued with a phrase along the lines "... and a hint to ..."). Given the existing entries, SEED MONEY would also be unacceptable, as all the other theme entries end in the part of a tree as opposed to beginning with it, though the puzzle could certainly be changed to have a mix of words in different positions.[76]
Once a consistent, appropriate theme has been chosen, a grid is designed around that theme, following a set of basic principles:
Crossword puzzle payments for standard 15×15 puzzles from the major outlets range from $50 (Games) to $500 (The New York Times) while payments for 21×21 puzzles range from $250 (Newsday) to $1,500 (The New York Times).[83]
The compensation structure of crosswords generally entails authors selling all rights to their puzzles upon publication, and as a result receiving no royalties from republication of their work in books or other forms.
Software[edit]
Software that aids in creating crossword puzzles has been written since at least 1976;[84] one popular example was Crossword Magic for the Apple II in the 1980s.[85] The earliest software relied on people to input a list of fill words and clues, and automatically maps the answers onto a suitable grid. This is a search problem in computer science because there are many possible arrangements to be checked against the rules of construction. Any given set of answers might have zero, one, or multiple legal arrangements. Modern open source libraries exist that attempt to efficiently generate legal arrangements from a given set of answers.[86]
In the late 1990s, the transition began from mostly hand-created arrangements to computer-assisted, which creators generally say has allowed authors to produce more interesting and creative puzzles, reducing crosswordese.[87]
Modern software includes large databases of clues and answers, allowing the computer to randomly select words for the puzzle, potentially with guidance from the user as to the theme or a specific set of words to pick with greater probability. Many serious users add words to the database as an expression of personal creativity or for use in a desired theme. Software can also be used to assist the user in finding words for a specific spot in an arrangement by quickly searching through the dictionary for all words that fit.[87]
In 1998 in Jakarta, publisher Elex Media Komputindo (Gramedia Group) published a crossword software entitled "Teka-Teki Silang Komputer" (Computerized Crossword Puzzle [Eng]) in diskette form. It is the first Crossword Puzzle software published in Indonesia. Created by Sukmono Bayu Adhi, the software is archived in the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia (Salemba Library, Jakarta).[88]
Media related to Crosswords at Wikimedia Commons