New York Times Crossword Answers, Stats, Observations
XWord Info has info about every NYT crossword ever published. Have fun exploring and you'll start seeing crosswords in a whole new light. Curious? Take the XWord Info Tour or see the FAQ.
Showing data from:
 Eric Berlin | The Sunday, November 11, 2018 crossword, ESCAPE ROOM, is by Eric Berlin 21x21, 142 words, 70 blocks CROSSWORD CONTEST This crossword represents an escape room, with four articles you'll need hidden inside. After you complete the grid, follow the directions at 41-, 70- and 99-Across to find what to do next. Working correctly will lead you to a four-word phrase with a total of 12 letters. That is your answer. When you have it, send it by email to: crosswordcontest@nytimes.com. Twenty-five correct solvers, chosen at random, whose entries are received by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, Nov. 13, will receive copies of The New York Times Crossword Puzzles 2019 Day-to-Day Calendar, from Andrews McMeel. Only one entry per person. The answer and contest solution will appear next week. The winners' names will appear in the issue of Dec. 2. |
| Across LitePDFSolution & Notes |
 Kathy Bloomer | The Monday, November 12, 2018 crossword is by Kathy Bloomer 15x15, 76 words, 38 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution & Notes |
 John Ciolfi | The Tuesday, November 13, 2018 crossword is by John Ciolfi 15x15, 78 words, 34 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution & Notes |
 Sam Trabucco | The Wednesday, November 14, 2018 crossword is by Sam Trabucco 15x15, 72 words, 36 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution & Notes |
 Mary Lou Guizzo  Jeff Chen | The Thursday, November 15, 2018 crossword is by Mary Lou Guizzo and Jeff Chen 15x15, 78 words, 36 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution |
 Kyle T. Dolan | The Friday, November 16, 2018 crossword is by Kyle Dolan 15x15, 70 words, 32 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution & Notes |
 Doug Peterson  Erik Agard | The Saturday, November 17, 2018 crossword is by Doug Peterson and Erik Agard 15x15, 68 words, 25 blocks |
| Across LitePDFSolution |
PDF and Across Lite links require an NYT Crossword subscription.
Across Lite also requires this software.
The next (Sunday) puzzle will be available in
13 hours and 10 minutes.
Variety: solve the November 11 acrostic online.
Some pages at XWord Info require registration
Crosswords
- Solutions from a calendar
- Enter a date:
- Sunday puzzles listed by date with titles
- Puzzles with circles or shaded squares
- Rebus puzzles (symbols or multiple letters in a single square)
- Grids with the fewest blocks and most blocks
- Grids with the fewest words and most words
- Puzzles with the longest avg. word length
- Unusual symmetry and asymmetry
- Pangrams and puzzles with the fewest letters used
- Scrabble scores: highest daily, lowest daily, highest Sunday, lowest Sunday
- Schrödinger puzzles aka quantum crosswords
- Most wide open grids
- Record stacks and some notable 15s
- Grids with unchecked squares
- Grids with no short answers or with very short answers
- Grids with repeated answer words
- Uniclue puzzles
- Oddly shaped or sized grids
- Freshness Factor™ Hall of Fame
- Most common grid patterns
- Patrick Berry's 2011 special six-part "Cross" word contest puzzles and solutions
- Eugene T. Maleska's stepquotes
- The six 1999 Millennium puzzles.
- Will Shortz picks his favorite puzzles and his favorite constructors
- Puzzles with comments from Will Shortz
- Will Shortz provides a clue-by-clue analysis of how he edits a crossword
- Puzzles with Notepads or Jim's personal notes
- Jeff Chen's Puzzles of the Week: solve them or view grids with comments or constructors
- The Misenko duplicates
- Stats about NYT Puzzle Editors
Variety puzzles
- Acrostics Solve online!
- Cryptic, Diagramless, PandA, etc.
- Variety puzzle FAQ
★ Tools for Constructors ★
- Clue and Answer Finder: shows clues used for any answer, or finds words that match any pattern — our most popular page!
- Analyze your own puzzle or present your puzzle on a web page for anyone to solve
- Search through clues or notepads
- Understand the different account levels
- NYT crossword submission guidelines
- Read about the XWord Info Word List
- ✅ Download the XWord Info Word List
Words and Letters
Shortz Era
- Most popular answer words
- Most popular words by length
- All Fifteen-letter words sorted alphabetically
- Even longer words sorted by length
- Debut words in the past month
- Debut words by year
- Most answers of each length
- Record setting letter counts
All Time
- Most popular words by length
- Missing words not found in any puzzles
- Random unique words
Constructors
- Most prolific authors (baseball cards)
- Constructors from the past month
- Celebrity Constructors
- Puzzle counts by day of week
- Puzzle counts by year
- Pangrams sorted by constructor
- Puzzles by the JASA Crossword Class
- Shortz Number and puzzle totals
- Highest lifetime Scrabble average
- 469 Shortz Era constructor photos
- Debut words by constructor
- Constructor debuts by year
- Variety puzzle constructors
- Youngest constructors
- Stats about women constructors
Older crosswords from The Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project
Data from puzzles before Will Shortz became editor are kept separate from modern puzzle stats. XWord Info has all 16,083 pre-Shortz crosswords from 2/15/1942 to 11/20/1993.
Selected pre-Shortz observations
Tips
- Click on any date to see that day's full puzzle including answers.
-
This site continuously updates its data. Bookmark this page for easy future access.
- See your account information or change your password.
- Recent commentary is available through Atom or RSS feeds.
- Questions? See the XWord Info FAQ list.
- Please help keep XWord Info alive and well. Donate today!
Across Lite and PDF links
- Recent puzzles in Across Lite and PDF
- Across Lite files organized by constructor
- Across Lite files from a calendar
★ Collaborate and Compete
Now you can solve NYT puzzles with your friends, or compete in a new way.- To begin, read the FAQ
- Collaborate with a friend
- Compete against a friend
Clue and Answer Finder
The XWord Info Finder page displays clues for any word, or words that match any pattern.You can now search clues as well.
Personal collections
- Grid Art — puzzles that caught my eye
- Puzzles with interesting visual elements
Contact us
Jeff Chen
XWord Info was created by Jim Horne.
It is now operated by Jeff Chen who provides commentary on each daily puzzle.
Email: contact Jeff and Jim.
Stay up to date: subscribe to our mailing list. We promise no spam.
Jim sometimes still writes about crosswords at his personal blog: The Further Adventures of Jim Horne
About the Database
There are 9,128 Shortz Era crosswords from Sunday, November 21, 1993 to Saturday, November 17, 2018
Puzzles come from 910 different constructors and include 111,052 unique answer words.
We now have an additional 16,083 older puzzles going back to Sunday, February 15, 1942.
Info for programmers
- XPF Universal Data Format (XML) defined
- Puzzles in JSON format with sample code
The Crossword Blogosphere
The latest posts from various blogsRecent pre-Shortzian blog posts
Fetching...
Other puzzle links
XWord Info © 2007-2018, Jim Horne. Crossword puzzles © 1942-2018, The New York Times.
Visual design is by Robin Troy. 0.06 sec