I like finishing crosswords. And I’ve picked up quite a few tricks to help me. I’ve learned that “Jai” is followed by ALAI, I recognize that a biblical character is probably ESAU or ENOS, and I can sometimes remember whether URAL or ARAL is the river or the mountain range or the lake. (For reference: Ural river or mountain range, Aral lake.)
But inevitably, the puzzle is too hard. And when that happens, there are two things that might happen when I click that “reveal puzzle” button. The first possibility: I’ve been tricked by the constructor; I wasn’t smart enough that day, but maybe I’ll be a little smarter next time. This makes me feel hopeful – albeit a little embarrassed and defeated.
The second situation I find a little more annoying. It’s when I look at the word or square that I didn’t get, and all I can do is think to myself: “How the frick was I supposed to know that?”
Crosswords will inevitably contain knowledge that not everyone knows (think: would your non-crossword pal know all of the examples in the first paragraph?). At the same time, I recognize how annoying Situation #2 can be for solvers. But how can we, as constructors, minimize these frustrating moments?
One possible solution: Wordplay.
Puzzle Spoilers:
Universal: “Themeless Sunday 148” August 31, 2025 by Adrian Johnson
The Subject Matter
In Universal’s “Themeless Sunday 148” by Adrian Johnson, the clue for 31-down in particular caught my eye as a nice solution to avoid a possible solving roadblock.
[Goya subject hidden backwards in “Etta James”] MAJA
This entry is a reference to Goya’s pair of paintings, titled (in English) “The Naked Maja” & “The Clothed Maja.” The term MAJA – denoting a lower-class woman from late-18th to early-19th century Spain – was new to me and was not covered in my rudimentary Spanish classes in school. I doubt I’m alone in my ignorance; I don’t think MAJA is a common-knowledge word for the general US populus.
With the extra wordplay element to the clue, a solver can use just a letter or two and deduce what the unknown word is with 100% confidence. Is this really necessary? You could argue it’s not– though I think MAJA’s specific context within the grid warrants this extra hint.
The clue to 34-across – [Actress de Armas] – is ANA, which crosses the first “A” of MAJA. Although 1) I personally recognize the name “Ana de Armas,” and 2) I think ANA is the most likely first name to go in this spot, it’s worth acknowledging that it’s not the only name that could theoretically fit. (Hello to another crossword celebrity: INA Garten!) And if you don’t know anything about Spanish vocabulary or current movie stars, there’s really nothing to differentiate between MAJA/ANA and MIJA/INA – you might just have to guess which letter is the correct one.
All in all, I think the added wordplay detail reduces frustration by making the clue less purely-trivia reliant. Especially since Universal aims for “easy-medium difficulty” (per its crossword submission spec sheet) I think the bonus wordplay aspect of the clue is appreciated by their targeted solvers – me included.
Practical Application of Wordplay Hints
So how do you “wordplay up” a clue? There are a couple of ways – most often, I’ve seen hidden words ([An Iowa city found in “tamest”] is AMES) and anagrams ([A currency whose letters can be rearranged to spell “rail”] is LIRA). You can also use a combination of the two, like in the MAJA example above.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that you don’t need your wordplay to spoonfeed all of a word’s letters to your solver. After all, the point of American crosswords is that each square is part of two answers, and therefore a solver has two possible avenues to fill in a letter. So-called “tough fill” often manifests in just one or two potentially hard-to-solve squares – the 2nd letter of MAJA, in the example above.
This is important because you can sometimes cater a wordplay hint to one specific letter in a particularly challenging crossing. For instance, pretend I’m particularly worried about the “u” of UPC* – maybe it’s crossing the first name AUDRA, which could theoretically be ANDRA. A possible solution would be to use the clue [Scannable merchandise acronym whose 1st letter stands for “Universal”]**, specifically helping puzzlers solve that pesky “u” and in the process quashing what could have been some very annoying online comments.
*Universal Product Code
**If you say this is a dupe, you’re wrong. Sorry! I do make the rules.
With all that in mind, here’s a (partial) list of possible wordplay tools for this purpose:
- Hidden words (e.g. the AMES example above)
- Anagrams (e.g. the LIRA example above)
- Homophones/sounds like (e.g. [Church section that sounds like features of a smartphone] for APSE; often useful for consonants)
- That uses the letters of a single word acting as a letter bank (anagram-adjacent)
- “…. whose last letter stands for _” (e.g. the UPC clue above; primarily useful for initials/acronyms)
- “Palindromic” (the symmetry of the word is helpful for solving itself)
- “That spells a __ backwards” (e.g. [Fictional Holmes whose name backwards is a synonym for “solitary”] for ENOLA)
- Combinations of the above (e.g. the initial MAJA example is a backwards, hidden word)
Final Thoughts
Obviously, a lot of “hard fill” ends up being a judgement call based on the solver you’re writing for. Most solvers (at least American ones) probably know who OPRAH and what the NBA are. Experienced puzzlers doing harder crosswords are probably going to know more “crosswordese” than new ones. However, these are the types of entries I believe are worth reinvestigating – to make sure the crossings are “fair” and align with your Ideal Solver.
Lastly, regarding wordplay in general: From this post, you might think that wordplay is primarily a tool to help solvers. But don’t underestimate the joy within wordplay – of finding unexpected connections within language. After all, aren’t many puzzle concepts built upon this joy? (This 2/8/2018 New York Times crossword by Erik Agard is a great example of that fact.)
All in all, I think it can be worth using occasional wordplay-related clues even if solvers don’t “need” them. At worst, it makes the puzzle easier; and at best it’ll make it easier and more fun. Sounds like a worthwhile proposition to me.
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