A calmer place to solve

Why this exists

Most crossword sites want something from you before you can solve anything. An email address, a trial, a countdown to a paywall. The puzzle itself ends up as the least prominent thing on the page, wedged between a login prompt and a column of advertising.

The idea here was to strip that away and see what was left. What was left is a grid, a list of clues, and a timer you can ignore. That turns out to be enough.

How the puzzles are made

Every published puzzle is reviewed by a person before it goes out. Grids are assembled with the help of our own tooling, which is good at finding dense, well-connected layouts and completely hopeless at judging whether a clue is any fun. That part is still done by hand.

The standard a puzzle has to meet is straightforward: the answers should be words a general reader knows, every answer should be checked by the words crossing it, and no clue should depend on knowing one obscure fact. A grid that technically works but reads like a list of abbreviations does not get published.

Difficulty is set by the clue rather than the answer. The same word can be a gentle definition in an Easy puzzle and something far more sideways in a Hard one, which is why the Hard Collection is not simply the Easy one with rarer vocabulary.

What you can play

The Easy, Normal and Hard collections run in order, so working through one is a gradual climb rather than a lucky dip. The Daily Crossword is one compact puzzle each day, keeping its own dated link so you can come back to it.

You can also open a private room and race a friend on the same grid. If crosswords are new to you, the beginner's guide covers the handful of habits that make the first few puzzles click.

Your data

There are no accounts, so there is nothing to sign into and nothing for us to lose. Completed puzzles and your Daily streak are stored in your own browser on the device you played on. Clearing site data resets them, and they do not follow you to another browser.

That is a real limitation rather than a feature, and it is the trade we chose for now. It also means we hold no password of yours and no email address you did not offer.

Get in touch

If a clue seems unfair, an answer looks wrong, or something behaves oddly on your phone, we would genuinely like to know. Puzzle suggestions are welcome too. Send us a note, or start somewhere easier and just play a puzzle.

Frequently asked questions

Is Crow's Words free?

Yes, entirely. Every puzzle is free to play, there is no subscription or paywall, and no account is required. You can open a puzzle and start solving without giving an email address.

Do I need an account to play?

No. Crow's Words has no accounts at all. Completed puzzles and your Daily streak are stored in your own browser, which means they do not follow you to another device but also means we hold no password or email of yours.

Who writes the Crow's Words puzzles?

Grids are assembled with in-house tooling and then reviewed by a person before publishing. Clue writing and difficulty judgement are done by hand, because the tooling is good at dense layouts and bad at deciding whether a clue is enjoyable.

What makes a puzzle good enough to publish?

Answers should be words a general reader knows, every answer must be checked by its crossing words, and no clue should hinge on one obscure fact. A grid that technically fills but reads like a list of abbreviations does not get published.

Does my progress save?

Progress and streaks save in your browser on the device you played on. Clearing site data resets them, and they do not sync across browsers or devices, because there are no accounts to sync them to.

Yassir Hantati — Builds and hand-reviews every crossword published on Crow's Words. Each grid is checked for fair clues, full crossings, and difficulty fit before it goes out.