London Fashion Street Crossword (2025)

FAQs

What are British crossword puzzles called? ›

Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta, New Zealand, and South Africa.

How do I solve a puzzle? You can solve the puzzle by answering the clues in any order. Click on either a clue or a box in the grid to enter an answer. Clues marked in gray indicate that a word has been entered.

There are three major types of crossword puzzles: fill-in, hints, and cryptic. A fill-in crossword puzzle provides a list of words that must be fitted into the given grid. For an extra challenge, try number fill-ins! A hints crossword puzzle provides a list of hints (such as trivia).

As most of you would know, the series of white squares in the crossword grid, into which answers are entered, are called "lights". Do you also know why they are called "lights"? This definition tallies with the dictionaries – Chambers has "hint, clue or help towards understanding" as a meaning of light.

British-style

Roughly half of the letters in each word are crossed over with another word (what's called "keyed" or "checked" in the industry). This is known as an alternate-letter grid - in general, every other letter in a word is checked.

The polite thing about American-style crosswords is that every letter in the grid is “checked,” meaning it's part of both an across entry and a down entry (in contradistinction to British-style crosswords, where a sizable percentage of the squares in a grid are part of only an across or a down entry).

In case the emoji does not come through on some of the solving platforms, the American Sign Language (or ASL) sign in “In which 🤟means 'I love you,' for short” is a fist with the thumb, index finger and pinkie extended.

Gray - Letters entered in pencil mode. Blue - Letters that have been confirmed with Check.

British-style grids have a larger number of black squares, so that up to half of the letters in an answer are unchecked, ie, form part of either an across or a down answer, but not both. Crossword setters frequently refer to unchecked letters as unches.

The common theme is a desire to be intellectually challenged. Roughly, people who are more into words are more likely to solve crosswords while people who are more into logic are more likely to solve Sudoku.

What is the most famous crossword puzzle? ›

Perhaps the most famous is the November 5, 1996, puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell, published on the day of the U.S. presidential election, which has been featured in the movie Wordplay and the book The Crossword Obsession by Coral Amende, as well as discussed by Peter Jennings on ABC News, featured on CNN, and elsewhere.

How hard could it be? The Saturday crossword is actually the hardest puzzle of the week. Mondays have the most straightforward clues and Saturday clues are the hardest, or involve the most wordplay. Contrary to popular belief, the Sunday puzzles are midweek difficulty, not the hardest.

A rebus puzzle has one or more squares in the grid containing a multi-letter word that represent a particular picture. For example a puzzle might contain the word crossroads where cross is all in one square.

noun. cru·​ci·​ver·​bal·​ist. ˌkrüsəˈvərbələ̇st. : a person skillful in creating or solving crossword puzzles.

What do circles in the NYT Crossword mean? Circles in a crossword highlight a theme for the puzzle. They either spell out what the theme is, words or letters related to the theme, and/or are in a pattern illustrating that theme. They provide extra clues to how each needs to be filled out.

The crossword puzzle was invented in the United States but cryptic ones are a British creation – and have never taken off over there.

You can get cryptic crosswords in the US – but you have to know where to look. As of 1947, you were guaranteed some quality puzzling time if you bought a copy of the weekly news magazine the Nation.