There are a number of websites available to get your daily dose of crossword clues. They’re all free and include the popular American-style grids, daunting cryptic crosswords, and a few that are perfect if you’re studying a second language. All of these puzzles can be played online and some can be printed out as well. Crosswords with holiday themes are very popular. Kids love the holidays and all the fun stuff that comes with them, so it’s only natural that they enjoy puzzles associated with them. Whether you’re looking for Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Valentine’s Day, there are fun crosswords you’ll want to print out for the kids in your life. Boatload Puzzles offers thousands of novice-level crossword puzzles that can test your skills before moving onto the bigger challenges. They’re free and easy-to-solve in an American-style 13 x 13 grid. The puzzles also use common words that exist in the basic vocabulary of most people, so you don’t need to be a human dictionary to figure them out. They’re clued in such a way that anyone who’s new to crossword solving should have no trouble arriving at the solution. Yet, if you get stuck, the computer can help you out. With the L.A. Times’ Daily Crossword, you can explore almost two weeks of archived daily crosswords. The website also offers a variety of crosswords, including jumble, Sheffer, Penny Dell, and Thomas Joseph for different skill levels and abilities. They have some fun word games and puzzles for kids as well. The puzzles are challenging, but not too hard that you’ll be stumped right away. It’s very easy to navigate and the interface is clutter-free. Better yet, if you create an account, you can track your scores and compete against others in the community. Ready to try your hand at these challenging word puzzles? The Guardian offers a daily cryptic crossword on their website. You can explore previous puzzles or one of their other crosswords as well. What is nice about these online puzzles is that you can use a tool such as Google Translate to transform the page into English. Use that to read directions and get a feel for the puzzle if you’re not very fluent yet. The translating tool won’t affect the puzzle itself. Plus, you have to remember to type the words in the language given or the answer’s wrong.
Mots-Croisés: French crosswords are not only in a different language, but they also change the grid. If you want to test your French, try a daily mots-croisés puzzle from LCI, a TV station in France. Crucigramas: El Pais is Spain’s most-read newspaper and their website offers a daily crucigrama. This Spanish version of the crossword is fun and definitely a challenge, no matter how fluent you are. Kreuzworträtsel: How’s your German? Put it to the test by playing the daily Kreuzworträtsel from Hamburg’s evening newspaper, Hamburger Abendblatts. It’s a very interesting grid that’s a puzzle in itself.
