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 50,746 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASSESSMENT | Sat Sep 24, 1994 | Rating | Manny Nosowsky |
| BENITOJUAREZ | Mon Nov 17, 2003 | 39-Across in Mexico City | Sarah Keller |
| BERTHED | Sun Apr 4, 1999 | Tied up at the marina | Richard Silvestri |
| BETTEROFF | Sun Sep 26, 1999 | Having the upper hand | Randolph Ross |
| BLOCKING | Sun Feb 7, 2010 | "He's looking for an opening, but she's doing a tremendous job of ___!" | Patrick Berry |
| CHOLLAS | Wed May 31, 1995 | Mojave plants | Jonathan Schmatzbach |
| DANIELDEFOE | Fri Apr 9, 1999 | "Moll Flanders" author | Manny Nosowsky |
| DEMOLESSON | Fri Oct 6, 2023 | Part of a teacher's job interview | Zhouqin Burnikel and Tom Pepper |
| DENSITIES | Sun Dec 31, 2006 | Rock stats | Elizabeth C. Gorski |
| DIRECTORATE | Sat Aug 7, 1999 | Controlling body | Trip Payne |
| EIGHTHOURDAY | Wed Feb 6, 2002 | Common shift | Joe DiPietro |
| ESURIENT | Sat Sep 28, 2002 | Greedy | Raymond Hamel |
| FILMDIRECTOR | Mon Aug 7, 2017 | Speaker of the last words of 20-, 28- and 44-Across | Kevin Christian |
| GANGOFFOUR | Thu Aug 17, 2017 | Faction in China's Cultural Revolution ... or a hint to each set of circled letters | Peter A. Collins |
| GREENSTAMPS | Sun Apr 14, 1996 | Tradables introduced in 1896 | Henry Hook |
| GULAGS | Sun Jun 5, 1994 | Prison camps | Dean Niles |
| HIRESACAR | Wed Jun 20, 2018 | Goes by livery taxi | Jeffrey Wechsler |
| JACKSONPOLLOCK | Wed Nov 1, 1995 | Abstract Expressionism pioneer | D. J. DeChristopher |
| LAPIDARY | Fri Aug 5, 1994 | Stonecutter | Daniel R. Stark |
| LEAVESON | Sun Sep 10, 2017 | Strands, as a base runner | Brendan Emmett Quigley |
| LOGCABINS | Sun Feb 15, 2015 | Little houses on the prairie | Ellen Leuschner and Jeff Chen |
| MEWLING | Thu Dec 16, 2021 | Sound from a crib | Trenton Charlson |
| MISERERE | Fri Jul 24, 1998 | The 51st Psalm | Manny Nosowsky |
| NATUREL | Sun Feb 22, 2004 | Au ___ | Nancy Nicholson Joline |
| NESI | Sat May 10, 1997 | 40's theater director James | Isabel Walcott |
| NOOGIES | Fri Aug 8, 2003 | Knuckle-headed gestures of affection? | Myles Callum |
| NOTORIOUSRBG | Sat Apr 13, 2019 | Supreme Court nickname, with "the" | Debbie Ellerin |
| OLIVEGROVE | Sat Nov 22, 2025 | Outdoor setting for Plato's Academy | Blake Slonecker |
| PEEWEEERWIN | Thu Dec 26, 2002 | Jazz trumpeter of the Big Band era | Cathy Millhauser |
| POLEDANCED | Fri Jan 1, 2021 | Did a hook spin or knee swing | Milo Beckman |
| POLITICALDNA | Fri Feb 10, 2012 | Party makeup? | Barry C. Silk and Brad Wilber |
| RETAILOR | Sun Dec 5, 1993 | Make a fitting change | Manny Nosowsky |
| SEGWAYS | Mon May 20, 2019 | Motorized two-wheelers | Gary Cee |
| SPRAYONTANS | Sat Feb 5, 2022 | Bronze producers | Kameron Austin Collins |
| STARTSON | Thu Aug 25, 2022 | Begins | Olivia Mitra Framke and Andrea Carla Michaels |
| TALKSDIRTY | Sun May 26, 2013 | Has an adult conversation? | Joon Pahk and Jeremy Horwitz |
| THESUNSHINEBOYS | Fri Jan 19, 1996 | 1975 film co-starring 13-Across | C. Gersch |
| THUNDERCLAP | Tue Oct 17, 2023 | Crack after a bolt | Dominic Grillo |
| TINIES | Sat Oct 1, 2016 | Edward Gorey's "The Gashlycrumb ___" | David Woolf |
| WITTIER | Sat Nov 16, 1996 | More scintillating | J. Page |