Arkadium's Fill Ins
Arkadium's Fill Ins
A fill in is a crossword turned inside out. You are given all the words. What you are not given is where any of them go.
That removes general knowledge from the puzzle entirely and replaces it with pure fitting. No clue is ambiguous because there are no clues. What decides whether you solve it is whether you can see that a seven letter slot crossing two five letter slots at positions three and six can only take one of the four seven letter words available.
It is a genuinely different mental exercise from a normal crossword, and people who find clue based puzzles frustrating often turn out to be very good at these.
- A grid of empty slots appears alongside a list of words.
- Every word in the list belongs somewhere in the grid, and every slot takes exactly one word.
- Place a word by selecting it and choosing a slot.
- Crossing letters have to agree, which is what constrains the whole puzzle.
- A help system will tell you which word belongs in a given spot.
How to play Arkadium's Fill Ins
Start by counting
Before placing anything, group the word list by length and count the slots of each length.
If there is exactly one nine letter word and exactly one nine letter slot, that placement is forced and it is free. Those forced placements are the way in, and there is almost always at least one.
Work the crossings
Once a word is placed, every slot crossing it has a fixed letter. That is what turns a list of thirty candidates into a list of two.
The productive order is always to place the most constrained slot next, not the most obvious word.
When to use help
Help tells you which word goes in a spot. It is worth spending when you have made an error somewhere and cannot find it, because a single correct anchor exposes the mistake. Spending it at the start skips the entire puzzle.
Clued puzzles are on the crossword page, and Crocword is the version where you build the words from letters instead.
Tips and strategy
How to begin
- Group the list by word length before you touch the grid.
- Any length with exactly one word and one slot is a forced placement. Take all of those first.
- Rare letters are anchors. A word containing a Q, X or Z can only cross other words containing those letters at that position, which usually pins it immediately.
Building out
- After each placement, look at what letters it fixed and which slots became constrained. Place the most constrained slot next.
- Watch for words with the same length and similar letters. Those are the pairs you will get the wrong way round, and the crossings are what tell them apart.
- If two placements both seem to work, one of them will fail three moves later. Look for a crossing that distinguishes them before committing.
What to avoid
- Placing a word because it looks like it fits, without checking every crossing it creates.
- Working slot by slot in reading order instead of by constraint.
- Not counting the list by length at the start, which is where the free placements are.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a fill in puzzle?
A crossword where you are given all the words but not their positions. You work out where each one fits from length and crossing letters rather than from clues.
Is there a new one each day?
Yes. A fresh puzzle is published daily.
Do I need general knowledge to solve it?
No. There are no clues, so nothing depends on knowing a fact. It is a fitting puzzle rather than a knowledge one.
Where should I start?
Group the word list by length and find any length that has exactly one word and one slot. That placement is forced and free.
Is it free to play?
Yes. Nothing to download, no account and no payment.