Mini Crossword

Our mini crossword is the friendly kind: a small five-by-five grid with five straightforward clues, and answers drawn from everyday words — the kitchen, the garden, a nice cup of tea. Every puzzle has three clues running one way and two the other, changing shape slightly from day to day. Every clue is a plain definition; there are no cryptic tricks, no anagrams and no crosswordese.

It sits at the small end of the crossword family on purpose. A full-size newspaper crossword can run to twenty or thirty clues and take the best part of an hour; a cryptic crossword adds a second layer of wordplay on top of that, and rewards years of practice more than it rewards a Tuesday morning. Our mini strips all of that away and keeps just the pleasure — read a clue, know the word, write it in.

How long does the daily mini crossword take?

Most players finish our mini crossword in about five minutes — five clues, a five-by-five grid, and no wordplay to untangle, so there is nothing standing between reading a clue and writing the answer. That makes it a genuine five-minute crossword rather than a marketing name for something that actually takes twenty.

How long yours takes depends mostly on how many crossing letters you already have, which is why the order you fill clues in matters more than raw crossword skill. Start with the clue you are certain of, however small, and the rest tends to speed up on its own — every filled square hands its letter on to whichever clue crosses it.

What is a mini crossword, and how is it different to a full-size or cryptic one?

A mini crossword is simply a smaller grid with fewer clues, and on ours, none of the wordplay that makes cryptic crosswords a puzzle in themselves. Ours is five squares by five squares, with five clues in total, split between across and down.

A full-size crossword, the kind in the back of a newspaper, usually runs fifteen squares by fifteen with twenty to thirty clues, and can happily eat an entire pot of tea. A cryptic crossword uses a similar grid but writes each clue as a small puzzle in its own right — an anagram, a hidden word, a pun — layered on top of the definition, a wonderful but entirely separate hobby with its own rulebook. Our mini keeps only the definition half of that, which is why beginners so often start here.

How do you read a plain definition clue?

A definition clue simply describes the answer, the way a kindly dictionary might. “Keep an eye on” is WATCH; “Sharp-eyed soarer” is EAGLE. Read the clue, think of a word of the right length that fits the description, and write it in — there is no trick hiding underneath.

If nothing comes to mind straight away, leave that clue and try one of the others; a finished grid is built from crossing letters as much as from clever thinking. Once a neighbouring answer is in place, the empty clue often turns from impossible to obvious in the time it takes to glance at it again. Our guide to how crossword clues work goes through this properly, with worked examples, for anyone starting from scratch.

What should you do when you’re stuck?

Move on, and come back. A clue that will not budge on the first read almost always opens up once a crossing letter or two has landed in it, so leaving it for a minute rarely wastes time and often saves it.

Tap Check my progress at any point — it quietly marks any letter that does not match the solution, without revealing what the right one is, so you keep the satisfaction of finding it yourself. If a whole day genuinely will not come together, the answers archive holds the finished grid for every day since launch, including today’s — worth keeping for last.

Is it the same crossword for everyone?

Yes. The puzzle is chosen by the calendar date, not by your account or your device, so everyone playing on a given day sees exactly the same grid and the same five clues. There is nothing to log in to and nothing to set up — the date does the choosing.

That makes the mini crossword rather good for comparing notes: ring your sister, or mention it at the lunch table, and you are both talking about the same 4 Across. A fresh puzzle appears each morning, and a day’s puzzle does not change once it has been set.

Where can I find yesterday’s crossword answers?

In the answers archive, which keeps every day’s solved grid since the site launched, sorted by month. Pick a date, and you will find the finished crossword alongside that day’s word search, sudoku and other puzzles.

Each archived day can also be played in full, not just checked — handy if you missed a day and fancy having a go before you look at the answers. Prefer pen and paper? The free printable pack includes a week of mini crosswords with answer keys. And if the daily habit itself is what you enjoy, our guide to building a gentle daily puzzle routine has a few thoughts on keeping it a pleasure rather than a chore.