This page is just for fun. It's a random collection of rare crossword answers; so rare that each appears only in a single Modern Era puzzle. Bogus entries (thematic words that make sense only in that crossword) are excluded.
There are 50,791 unique Modern Era answer words in the database.
Click any word to see it in the context of its puzzle. Words in this color did appear in pre-Shortz crosswords.
| Word | Date | Clue | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARSENICAL | Sat Feb 17, 2007 | Like some poisoning | Robert H. Wolfe |
| AUDITIONED | Sat Nov 11, 1995 | Tried out | Nancy Nicholson Joline |
| BARRYGIBB | Fri Mar 29, 2019 | Only songwriter in history to write four consecutive #1 hits (1978) | Martin Ashwood-Smith |
| CADGING | Sun Nov 24, 2019 | Bumming, as cigarettes | Frank Longo |
| COATIS | Thu Sep 21, 2006 | Ring-tailed animals | Stella Daily and Bruce Venzke |
| COLANDERS | Sun Sep 20, 2009 | Porous kitchen utensils | Michael Ashley |
| COOSBAY | Fri Aug 12, 2005 | Harbor town in Oregon | Manny Nosowsky |
| CSTUDENT | Fri Jun 9, 2006 | Honor society rejectee | Manny Nosowsky |
| CTRLR | Sun Mar 15, 2026 | "Refreshing" web shortcut | Miranda Kany |
| DEMONETIZE | Sat Oct 7, 2023 | Punish, in a way, as a YouTube creator | Alex Vratsanos |
| DESERTRAT | Thu Jan 4, 2024 | Rodent in an arid environment | Chase Dittrich and Christina Iverson |
| DOPESTER | Fri Mar 17, 2000 | Pre-election consultant | Glenton Petgrave |
| DRASTICMEASURES | Thu Feb 3, 2005 | Extreme action | Elizabeth C. Gorski |
| DVDBOXSET | Sat Mar 16, 2013 | Gift for a TV buff | Julian Lim |
| ENIWETOK | Sat May 11, 2013 | 1950s H-bomb test site | Matt Ginsberg |
| ENMER | Thu Apr 7, 1994 | On the ocean: Fr. | Fred Piscop |
| EXCULPATE | Sun Mar 20, 2011 | Clear of charges | Brendan Emmett Quigley |
| FADEOUTS | Fri Mar 21, 1997 | Cinematic techniques | Shannon Burns |
| FLIPFLOPPED | Thu Apr 1, 2010 | Like the clues in all the words in this puzzle | Lee Glickstein |
| FLOTILLA | Sun Nov 25, 2001 | Naval unit | Bob Klahn and Harvey Estes |
| HIGHON | Fri Jul 5, 2002 | Enthusiastic about | Manny Nosowsky |
| HIMMEL | Sun Jul 24, 1994 | Where Gott resides | Matt Gaffney |
| HOUSEMUSIC | Fri Jan 11, 2013 | Some club tunes | Ian Livengood |
| INDORSED | Sat Oct 31, 2009 | Supported: Var. | Robert H. Wolfe |
| LAVALIERES | Wed Nov 26, 2014 | Some microphones | Michael S. Maurer |
| MAINPOINT | Fri Jun 20, 2025 | Crux | Adrianne Baik |
| MANDARINCHINESE | Thu May 16, 2013 | Language that gave us "kowtow" | Brendan Emmett Quigley and Elizabeth Donovan |
| MEGACON | Sat Feb 10, 2024 | Annual mecca for sci-fi and fantasy fans | Zhouqin Burnikel |
| MOOREHEAD | Sat Feb 5, 2011 | Actress who played Endora on TV's "Bewitched" | Mark Diehl |
| ONEINFORTY | Sat Aug 20, 2016 | 2.5% | Mark Diehl |
| PANTYLINE | Sat May 9, 2015 | Female fashion faux pas | Kristian House |
| SCD | Sat May 7, 1994 | Postgraduate science deg. | Bryant White |
| SEEYOUSOON | Fri Jan 13, 2017 | "Toodles" | Andrew J. Ries |
| SOUSVIDE | Thu Nov 17, 2022 | French-developed form of cooking in a precisely temperature-controlled water bath | Hoang-Kim Vu and Jessica Zetzman |
| SPECULATE | Thu Oct 23, 2008 | Conjecture | Patrick Blindauer |
| STARTSWITHABANG | Mon Oct 25, 2010 | Has an exciting opening number, say ... or what the answer to each starred clue does? | Jonah Kagan |
| STRINGOFPEARLS | Sun Mar 13, 1994 | BAILEY, BUCK, WHITE | Nancy Nicholson Joline |
| TONYRANDALL | Fri Jun 9, 2000 | National Actors Theatre founder | Joe DiPietro |
| UNCLETOMSCABIN | Mon Jan 2, 2006 | 1852 book | Linda Schechet Tucker |
| WHATAGOODBOYAMI | Thu Apr 14, 2022 | Homer's self-satisfied assertion? | Ashish Vengsarkar and Narayan Venkatasubramanyan |