Criss-Cross Puzzle Maker
Build a printable interlocking word-fit grid from your own words. Every run of letters in the finished grid is checked to be one of your words.
Criss-Cross
Word bank
What makes a criss-cross work
- Every run of letters in the grid must be one of your words. This is the thing that goes wrong. Words placed alongside each other create two-letter runs that are not answers, and the solver quite reasonably tries to fit a word into them. Every grid here is read back run by run before you see it.
- Words are placed longest first, while the grid is still open. Long words need the room, and they give the short ones somewhere to hook onto.
- Every word after the first has to cross another. A grid of words merely sitting near each other is a word list with boxes round it.
- Words that share no letter with the rest cannot interlock and are reported rather than dropped quietly. Swapping one such word usually fixes a stubborn list.
- Between six and a dozen words of mixed length gives the best grid. All-short lists barely interlock; all-long ones run out of room.
- Print without Show the answers for the puzzle, and with it for the solution.
How to use
- Type your words, one per line, or pick a theme.
- Press Build the grid and check the status line.
- Print without the answers for the puzzle, with them for the solution.
Frequently asked questions
What goes wrong with these puzzles normally?
Stray runs. Two words placed alongside each other create a two-letter run that is not one of the answers, and the solver quite reasonably tries to fit a word into it. Every grid here is read back run by run and refused if any run is not a word you supplied.
Why is one of my words crossed out?
It could not be interlocked. Usually it shares no letter with anything else in the list, or the grid size cap left nowhere for it. Swapping that one word normally fixes a stubborn list, and it is reported rather than dropped quietly.
What makes a good word list?
Between six and a dozen words of mixed length. All-short lists barely interlock and produce a sparse grid; all-long lists run out of room. One long word early on gives everything else something to hook onto, which is why placement goes longest first.
Is this the same as a crossword?
No. A crossword has clues and you work out the words; a criss-cross gives you the words and you work out where they go. There are no black squares either — the shape is whatever the interlocking produces.
Will the same list give the same grid?
Yes, every time. That matters if you print a sheet, lose it and need to print it again — you get the identical puzzle rather than a new one.
Why are the squares numbered?
Same convention as a crossword: a number on every square that starts an across or a down entry, running left to right and top to bottom. It gives you a way to talk about the grid. Turn it off if you would rather have blank squares.
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