Free Themed Crossword Puzzles
Free Themed Crossword Puzzles
A themed crossword is one where the long answers share a subject, and the theme is usually the way into the puzzle rather than an afterthought.
This series publishes a new one daily and keeps everything that came before. That archive matters more than the daily does. A crossword habit is built on always having another puzzle available, and a daily with no archive punishes you for missing a Tuesday.
The difficulty sits at the accessible end. Clues are direct, the vocabulary is everyday, and the themes are broad rather than obscure. If most cryptics feel like they were written for somebody else, these were written for you.
How to play Free Themed Crossword Puzzles
- A new puzzle appears each day, with previous ones available in the archive.
- Click a square to select it and see the clue.
- Click again to switch between across and down.
- Type your answer. The cursor advances on its own.
- Tab moves to the next clue and the arrow keys move square by square.
Finding the theme
The long answers are related. Working out how usually cracks the puzzle, because once you know the subject, half of the long entries become guessable from two or three crossing letters instead of from the clue alone.
So the productive first move is not solving the longest entry, it is reading the longest entries and asking what they might have in common.
The first pass
Read every across clue once and write in only what you are certain of, then do the same downwards. You are collecting crossing letters rather than answers, and six certain answers scattered across the grid are worth more than one solved corner.
The archive
Because past puzzles remain available, an abandoned grid is not lost. It is worth coming back to one a day later rather than revealing it, since crosswords resolve overnight in a way little else does.
Tips and strategy
Getting in
- Fill in the blank clues first. One answer, no wordplay, free crossings.
- Three and four letter answers are the scaffolding. Place them and the long entries stop looking impossible.
- Clues naming a specific river, currency or card game have exactly one answer.
Reading clues
- Match the grammar exactly. Plural clue, plural answer. Past tense clue, past tense answer.
- Abbreviated clues want abbreviated answers, and that tells you the answer length before you count squares.
- A question mark at the end of a clue signals wordplay rather than a definition.
Traps
- Ignoring the theme and solving entry by entry. The theme is the biggest single hint in the puzzle.
- Defending a plausible answer with no crossings supporting it.
- Finishing one corner before moving on, which wastes the crossings you just earned.
The syndicated dailies are Thomas Joseph Crossword and Sheffer Crossword, and everything else is on the crossword page.
More games like this
Play our free daily puzzles See all →
Made by us. One a day, the same for everyone, no sign up.
Last updated
Frequently asked questions
Is there a new crossword every day?
Yes, and past puzzles stay available in the archive, so missing a day costs you nothing.
What makes a crossword themed?
The long answers share a subject. Working out what connects them usually makes the rest of the grid much easier.
How hard are these puzzles?
They sit at the accessible end. Clues are direct and the vocabulary is everyday.
Can I play puzzles I missed?
Yes. The archive holds past days and they can be played at any time.