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 50,794 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFS | Sun Oct 29, 2000 | Military branches: Abbr. | Karen Hodge |
| ARTEST | Fri Jan 13, 2023 | Onetime N.B.A. star Metta Sandiford-___ | Brad Wiegmann |
| BATWEIGHT | Sat Jun 5, 2004 | "Doughnut," in baseball lingo | Byron Walden |
| BOOTSTRAPS | Fri Feb 13, 2009 | Self-starter's equipment? | Doug Peterson |
| BOYOBOY | Tue Jun 17, 2003 | "Hot-diggity-dog!" | Susan Harrington Smith |
| CAMETRUE | Fri Dec 6, 1996 | Succeeded, as a wish | M. Nosowsky |
| CARAVANS | Sat Dec 13, 1997 | Desert groups | Richard Silvestri |
| CHINAROSE | Fri Jan 24, 1997 | Garden bloomer | D. J. Kahn |
| CRISISPOINT | Sun Apr 15, 2007 | Do-or-die time | Brendan Emmett Quigley |
| DATEPALMS | Sat Sep 25, 2010 | Oasis sights | Patrick Berry |
| DIETITIANS | Mon Apr 15, 1996 | Food gurus | S. L. Robbins |
| DUCKSOUTOFVIEW | Wed Mar 21, 2018 | Why the hunter couldn't shoot the mallards? | Laura Braunstein |
| EMBEZZLE | Wed Jul 24, 2002 | Misappropriate | Eric Berlin |
| EMPHASISMINE | Fri Feb 9, 2018 | [Can you believe they wrote this?!] | Brendan Emmett Quigley |
| EOLITHIC | Fri Dec 10, 2021 | Period at the beginning of the Stone Age | Joe DiPietro |
| FENETRE | Sat Nov 12, 1994 | Maison window | Bryant White |
| GRAMMES | Sun Oct 13, 2002 | British metric units | Elizabeth C. Gorski |
| GSTAAD | Wed Sep 11, 2019 | Upscale Swiss ski resort | Ned White |
| HALFALOAF | Sun Aug 12, 2007 | Proverbial portion | Cathy Millhauser |
| HARPOON | Sun Jan 19, 2014 | Weapon for 27-Across | Dan Schoenholz |
| IBEGYOURPARDON | Mon Aug 6, 2001 | Apology #3 | Bernice Gordon |
| ISITREAL | Tue Sep 7, 2021 | "Can this be happening?" | Zhouqin Burnikel |
| LETHALWEAPON | Mon Nov 27, 2017 | 1987 Mel Gibson film | Kevin Christian |
| MIXINGMETAPHORS | Sun Dec 3, 2000 | Writing no-no | Elizabeth C. Gorski |
| NAMEGAME | Thu Jan 27, 2022 | 1965 Shirley Ellis hit full of wordplay, with "The" | Lewis Rothlein and Jeff Chen |
| NICEMOVE | Sat Apr 28, 2018 | "Good going!" | Andrew Kingsley and John Lieb |
| OKAYBUDDYDRAW | Sun Nov 3, 1996 | Words at a shootout | M. Nosowsky |
| OLDSAXON | Thu May 20, 2021 | Germanic language of the 8th-12th centuries | Trenton Charlson |
| ORPHANBLACK | Sat Feb 23, 2019 | Hit 2010s sci-fi series in which a single actress plays multiple clones | Sam Ezersky |
| RAREBREED | Tue Jul 27, 2004 | Unusual sort | Len Elliott |
| RESPELLED | Sun Feb 15, 2026 | Fixed, as a "m-i-t-s-a-k-e" | Michael Lieberman and Rebecca Goldstein |
| RINGMYBELL | Sun Feb 13, 2000 | 1979 Anita Ward hit | Bill Zais |
| SAMUELBECKETT | Sat Aug 15, 2020 | Playwright who wrote "We are all born mad. Some remain so" | Joe DiPietro |
| SANDDUNE | Sun Jan 29, 2012 | Sahara feature | Ian Livengood |
| SELS | Thu Jun 13, 1996 | French seasonings | D. J. Kahn |
| SHOULDERSTRAP | Fri Nov 13, 2015 | Line of women's clothing? | Patrick Berry |
| SLUICES | Fri May 27, 2005 | Gold mining washers | Manny Nosowsky |
| SNACKMIX | Mon Dec 23, 2024 | *Hodgepodge bowlful of munchies | Glenn Cook |
| STOPCOCK | Sat Feb 3, 2007 | Faucet with a rotating plug | Rich Norris |
| WILLYOUBEQUIET | Fri Feb 25, 2022 | Comment to someone who talks too much | Damon Gulczynski |