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Jonathan Cross
COMMUNIQUE
New York Times, Sunday, March 26, 1944
47-Across : ___ primordial: the first beginnings of things.
Author:
Jonathan Cross
Editor:
Margaret Farrar
Rows: 23, Columns: 23, Words: 168 , Blocks: 81 , Avg Word Len: 5.33 , Missing: { J Q X Z } , Scrabble score: 630 (avg 1.41)
Open Squares: 156 , Cheaters: 8 , FITB: 8 , XRef: 0 , Words that never appeared in a previous NYT crossword: 91 , Grid flow: 29.3
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© 1944, The New York Times No. 111
Across
1
Unsinkable aircraft carrier. :
ISLAND 7
14
21
22
Largest land mass on earth. :
EURASIA 23
24
Ammonia-almond oil poison. :
AMARINE 25
26
27
Sun Yat-___, President of China, 1921–22. :
SEN 28
30
31
Solar disk of Egypt. :
ATEN 32
33
35
36
38
39
40
Yugoslavian: Comb. form. :
SERBO 42
43
44
47
___ primordial: the first beginnings of things. :
RERUM 49
51
52
54
56
58
Mexican Pacific State, below Sonora. :
SINALOA 61
63
Town between Turin and Genoa. :
ALBA 64
67
Something indivisible. :
ONE 68
French pre-college school. :
LYCEE 70
Cogitator struck by an apple. :
ISAAC 72
74
Folded part of collar. :
LEAF 76
79
80
82
Russian admiral (1737–1809). :
ORLOV 83
85
86
88
91
Dutch isle adjacent to S. E. Celebes. :
MUNA 92
94
95
97
Visit between whalers. :
GAM 98
99
101
Pilasterlike abutment of an arch. :
ALETTE 103
105
107
City in central Sicily. :
ENNA 108
109
112
114
116
120
Aslant, as a ship's mast. :
ARAKE 121
122
Czech munitions works of Pilsen. :
SKODA 124
125
126
130
132
133
134
135
Coin of Latvia, about 20c. :
LAT 136
Gandhi's passive resisters. :
HINDUS 138
139
141
143
145
146
147
148
Ancient native N. E. of Babylon. :
ELAMITE 149
150
Down
1
2
3
Original of King Lear. :
LER 4
5
Herb with aromatic root. :
NONDO 6
7
8
9
Grand ___, land of Evangeline. :
PRE 10
11
Moon goddess of Babylon: Var. :
ISTAR 12
Metals with inlaid alloys. :
NIELLOS 13
14
15
Strategic invasion port. :
DOVER 16
17
Unsorted wheat flour: India. :
ATA 18
19
Small line on hawk's leash. :
CREANCE 20
21
Famous island in S. E. Pacific; to Chile. :
EASTER 29
British legislators. :
PEERS 31
34
Czech capital, native form. :
PRAHA 36
37
38
41
43
45
46
System of manual training from Swedish pattern. :
SLOYD 48
Italian general, chief-of-staff. :
MESSE 50
53
Portugal's colony in China. :
MACAO 55
57
58
Air Corps cadet on first lone flight. :
SOLOIST 59
60
61
62
64
Isle just north of Haiti. :
TORTUGA 65
What the British countryside is. :
ARSENAL 66
Strategic Finnish Arctic port. :
PETSAMO 69
71
73
___ O'Flaherty, Irish novelist. :
LIAM 75
77
Region of Mt. Helicon and Greek Muses. :
AONIA 78
81
84
87
89
90
93
96
100
102
104
105
106
India's spring harvest. :
RABI 108
City on the Meuse. :
SEDAN 109
110
111
113
115
117
118
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123
126
127
128
129
What Eniwetok is. :
ATOLL 131
134
136
137
Theatrical extra: Slang. :
SUPE 140
Smashed installation on the Eder. :
DAM 141
142
144
133 1/3 lbs. in China. :
TAN
Answer summary:6 unique to this puzzle , 85 debuted here and reused later , 5 appeared only in pre-Shortz puzzles .
Analyzing...
Analysis
There are 0 circles, 0 rebus squares and 8 cheater squares.
The grid
Grid has normal rotational symmetry It has 6 words unique to this puzzle:
It has 85 additional words that debuted in this puzzle and were later reused (total number of puzzles in brackets):
These words have only appeared in pre-Shortz puzzles:
These 50 answer words are not legal Scrabble™ entries, which sometimes means they are interesting:
Grid has an unusual size: 23 rows x 23 columns.
Note: average values here are based on Modern Era stats. Pre-Shortz puzzles didn't vary consistently by day of week.
Distribution of answer words by length
Letter distribution
Scrabble Score: 1
2
3
4
5
8
10
Thumbnails
Various thumbnail views are shown:
Standard view shows the grid pattern most clearly
Open Squares (those which don't touch any block, even diagonally) are blue
Vowel distribution
Scrabble score uses the same color key as above
Freshness view shows unique answers in red (see colorized grid below)
With answers
Modern Era puzzles that may be similar to this one
Crosswords that share the most words with this one:
Unusual or long words that appear elsewhere:
Identical grids
Other puzzles with the same block pattern as this one:
Topologically similar grids
Other crosswords with exactly 81 blocks, 168 words, 156 open squares, and an average word length of 5.33:
Colorized grid (based on pre-Shortz, Modern Era and Variety word frequencies)
In this view, unusual answers are colored depending on how often they have appeared in other puzzles.
Unique answers are in red, red overwrites orange which overwrites yellow, etc.
Cheater squares are indicated with a + sign.
Unique
1 other
2 others
3 others
4 others
Freshness
How common is each answer word?
This chart shows the number of puzzles each word has appeared in across all NYT puzzles, old and modern.