XWord Info Freshness Factor™

Thursday, October 3, 2002 by Susan Harrington Smith
4 Unique Modern Era words

Susan Harrington Smith

A

H

A

B

I

R

C

H

S

A

L

E

D

E

B

E

C

O

L

E

S

T

R

A

Y

L

I

Z

S

E

C

O

N

D

T

O

T

H

E

E

D

U

C

E

D

U

S

U

R

P

E

R

R

I

G

H

T

A

N

D

B

U

S

E

S

M

E

M

A

N

E

G

O

M

O

L

E

S

T

R

A

I

G

H

T

O

N

E

M

U

S

T

E

K

O

T

O

E

N

E

V

E

R

N

E

V

E

R

L

A

N

D

U

N

S

H

O

D

M

E

M

E

W

E

T

P

E

T

E

R

P

A

N

W

O

E

I

S

M

E

U

R

S

U

L

A

T

I

L

L

M

O

R

N

I

N

G

F

A

N

O

R

A

L

S

S

A

R

E

E

F

C

C

P

E

N

S

C

L

A

S

S

S

K

Y

Calculations here are based on the number of other times each word in this puzzle was used in the Modern Era. A logarithmic calculation gives credit for debuts or rare words. Very common words reduce the score.

Percentages shown above are actually percentiles, a more meaningful comparison. The overall percentile compares this puzzle to all other Modern Era crosswords. The day-of-week percentile only compares against other crosswords published on the same weekday. This allows crosswords that are, for example, "fresh for a Monday" to get proper credit.

55 overall percentile means only 45% of all crosswords have a higher Freshness score. 61 Thursday percentile means only 39% of all Thursday crosswords score higher.

Note that this completely mathematical calculation does not and cannot include such subjective factors as the cleverness of the clues. Obscure words are "fresh" but may not be any good.

For comparison, the second chart below shows word frequencies across all NYT puzzles we have going back to the first one in 1942. It's not used for calculations here since older usages are less relevant.

Click on any answer word below to see all the clues used for that word.

Counts from Modern Era crosswords only

The Freshness Factor calculations are based on this chart showing only Modern Era usage stats.

Counts from NYT puzzles including pre-Shortz, Modern and Variety