New York Times Crossword Stats and Observations

XWord Info contains data about NYT puzzles dating back to November, 1993, covering the entire time that Will Shortz has been Puzzle Editor. The links below will be of most interest to constructors and serious solvers but occasional dabblers will be entertained too. Have fun exploring and you'll start seeing crosswords in a whole new light.

The Wednesday, March 10, 2010 puzzle is by Gary Steinmehl. (Across Lite, Solution, blog)

About the Database

Puzzles

• Any puzzle from a calendar with answers
• Sunday puzzles by title
• Puzzles with circles or shaded squares
• Rebus puzzles (multiple letters or symbols in a single box)
• Puzzles with the fewest and most blocks (black squares)
• Highest and lowest word count puzzles
• Puzzles with the longest avg. word length
• Unusual symmetry and asymmetry
• Puzzles with Notepads or other special annotations
• Pangrams and puzzles with the fewest letters used
• Scrabble scores: highest daily, lowest daily, highest Sunday, lowest Sunday
• Most wide open grids
• Most common grid patterns
• Mobile answers for your cell phone
• Grid Art — puzzles that caught my eye
• Puzzles with interesting visual elements
• Freshness Factor™ Hall of Fame
• The Art of Wordplay — best blog photos from 2008 and 2009
• XPF Universal Data Format defined
• Constructors: you can analyze your own puzzles here

Clue and Answer Finder

• The Finder page displays clues for any word, or words that match any pattern

Across Lite links

• Across Lite link to Wednesday puzzle
• Links to recent puzzles
• Across Lite files by constructor

Words and Letters

• Most popular answer words
• Most popular words by length
• All Fifteen-letter words sorted alphabetically
• Even longer words sorted by length
• Random or Recent unique words
• Most answers of each length
• Record setting letter counts

Constructors

• Most prodigious authors
• Puzzle counts by day of week
• Puzzle counts by year
• Shortz Number and other info
• Highest lifetime Scrabble average
• Value
• 54 Constructor photos
• Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker

Search both Wordplay & XWord Info:

Click on any date to see that day's full puzzle including answers. (Manage tooltips.)

This site continuously updates its data. Bookmark this page for easy future access.

Questions? See the FAQ list.

Please visit XWord Info's companion site: It's the official New York Times crossword blog. Come join the conversation about today's puzzle and all things crossword-related.