A Crash Course In
Crosswordese

The crossword community usually uses the term crosswordese to refer to...
Words that appear frequently in crosswords, but not in everyday life.This includes words like ETUI (an ornamental case) and ELAND (a type of antelope), that you need to learn especially to solve crosswords, simply because they turn up a lot.
But I'm going to use a slightly more general meaning. For me, crosswordese is going to refer to...
The language of crosswords.The reason I extend the definition is that not only will you need to learn words you are unlikely to encounter in the real world very often, but you will also frequently encounter unexpected meanings of words you already know.
We all know the word ERA, for example. But not everybody knows that this sequence of letters is also an acronym for Earned Run Average - a statistic used in baseball. Knowing the everyday meaning of this word will help you solve the clue [History segment], but you'll be left high and dry when faced with the clue [Diamond stat.] ;-)
In other words, to become fluent in crosswordese, you not only need to learn a bunch of unusual words, you also need to familiarize yourself with lots of unusual clues to perfectly common-looking words.
I've put together this page as a stepping stone to ease you into the world of crosswordese. What I've done here is collect 50 of the most frequently occurring answers appearing in American newspaper crosswords (these are often called
repeaters
) and presented them in a way that should help you master crosswordese effectively.
First I list the word, and following it, I list a variety of ways that word might be clued in a typical crossword puzzle. Your job is to learn the word (often a common one) and understand all the clues (often not so common) that lead to that word. If you don't understand a clue, you may need to do some research...
To research a word or clue, I recommend you...
- search for unexpected synonyms using a good quality word finder (the one I use is
WordWebPro
), or
- do a search in Wikipedia, if the clue seems to require an piece of general knowledge you just don't have.
The whole process will not only get you speaking crosswordese sooner, but you'll learn lots of interesting trivia along the way.
- ERA
-
- History segment
- Time worth remembering
- Pitcher's stat.
- Oft-nicknamed period
- Diamond stat.
- Time piece
- AREA
- Metropolitan ___
- Nonsmoking ___
- Field of study
- Neck of the woods
- Gazetteer figure
- Geometrical finding
- Bailiwick
- Word with surface or disaster
- It may have a code
- Side by side?
- It may be gray
- 'Hood
- ERE
-
- Before, poetically
- Bard's before
- Poet's preposition
- "___ Time transfigured me": Yeats
- Before, before
- It may appear before long
- ERIE
- Toledo's lake
- Great Lake touching four states
- Weird-sounding lake
- Niagara's source
- War of 1812 siege site
- Iroquois foe
- Buffalo water
- ORE
-
- Valuable rocks
- Bauxite or magnetite
- Something to slag
- It's found in veins
- Swedish coins
- It might be found in a rush
- ELI
-
- Pharmaceutical giant ___ Lilly
- Yale student
- Harvadite's rival
- Letter "Y" wearer
- Bush or Taft
- Descendant of Aaron, in the Bible
- ONE
-
- Last number in countdown
- Digit in binary code
- No longer divided
- Wedded
- Simple ticket order
- Next to nothing?
- ALE
-
- Relative of beer
- It might help wash down a banger
- Bass, for one
- Old Foghorn, e.g.
- Lead-in for house or wife
- Schooner's contents, maybe
- ALI
-
- Muhammad ___
- 2001 role for Will Smith
- Clay, now
- Foreman's superior
- Poetic pugilist
- His won-lost record was 56-5
- ARE
-
- "___ we there yet?"
- Exist
- "You ___ There" (50's TV show)
- Is for two
- Cost
- Be a different way?
- EDEN
- Adam and Eve locale
- East of ___
- Churchill's successor
- Barbara who played a genie
- Scene of a fall
- Place of bliss
- Paradise lost
- Perfect plot
- ETA
-
- When the pilot is due in, for short
- Greek H
- Hellenic vowel
- ___ Pi (dessert lover's fraternity?)
- Viscosity symbol, in physics
- Touchdown info
- ANTE
- Card player's stake
- Prefix with chamber
- Pot starter
- Pay to play
- Vide ____ (see before, in Latin)
- Buy in
- Part of a.m.
- Deal preceder
- Cash on hand?
- Table center piece?
- Stud fee?
- ATE
-
- Had a meal
- Supped
- Put away
- Took the cake?
- Had a little lamb
- Came to a fast stop
- ALOE
- ____ vera
- Healing balm
- African lily
- Tissue additive
- Yucca plant cousin
- Cure for being caught red-handed?
- ARIA
- Song in an opera house
- Met melody
- Song that's often in a foreign language
- Diva delivery
- "Celeste Aida," e.g.
- High-culture strains
- Operatic offering
- Air on stage
- Unlikely number for a rock concert
- Number for one
- OLE
- Spanish cheer
- Grand ___ Opry
- ___ Miss
- Hurrah for El Farruco
- Motivation for Manolete
- ENE
-
- Opposite WSW
- Ethyl finish
- Cincinnati-to-New York dir.
- Wind dir.
- 67.5 degrees
- Hydrocarbon suffix
- ERR
- Goof up
- Be off
- Be human?
- ESS
- Feminine suffix
- Twisty turn
- Scrabble 1-pointer
- Symbol on a cape
- Biggest section in a dictionary
- Surreal beginning?
- ALA
- Cookbook phrase
- ___ grecque
- One of the states seen from Lookout Mtn.
- Like
- IDEA
- Notion
- "What's the big ___?"
- Something to think about
- It may be half-baked
- It may be bright
- What a germ may become
- Coconut yield?
- SPA
- Health club
- Belgian resort town
- Baden-Baden, for one
- Place for sweaters?
- ASH
- Cinder
- ___ Wednesday
- Hair color
- Hardwood
- OREO
- Nabisco cookie
- It may get a licking after dinner
- Dunkable treat
- Hydrox look-alike
- Snack since 1912
- IRE
- Anger
- High dudgeon
- E.U. member
- IRA
- Lyricist Gershwin
- Belfast grp.
- Money for senior yrs.
- Glass of public radio
- ELSE
- Otherwise
- "What ___?"
- G. & S.'s Lord High Everything ___
- End of a warning
- Choice word
- It may follow something
- NEE
- Originally
- Jacqeline Onassis ___ Bouvier
- Word in alumni notes
- Born, in Bordeaux
- ADO
- Fuss
- Much ___ about nothing
- Flap
- ESE
- 180 degrees from WNW
- Language suffix
- Chicago-to-Pittsburgh dir.
- Legal ending
- EAR
- Inner ___
- Prominent part of a dachshund
- Musical gift
- Audiologist's concern
- Where the utricle is
- ODE
- Praiseful poem
- Alexander Pope's "Solitude," e.g.
- Sapphic work
- "___ on a Grecian Urn"
- END
- Finis
- T formation participant
- Omega
- ARI
- Mr. Onassis
- Agent Gold of HBO's "Entourage"
- Actress Meyers
- "Exodus" hero
- Uris hero
- SEE
- "Comprende?"
- Match
- Date
- Religious purview
- ACE
- Virtuoso
- Star pitcher
- Excellent service
- The Red Baron, e.g.
- Most valuable diamond
- OLEO
- Margarine
- Muffin topper
- Spread out on a table?
- Pat on the buns?
- It's sold in bars
- Promise output
- ANT
- Member of a colony
- Symbol of industry
- Antenna holder
- Grasshopper's teacher,in Aesop
- "The Atom ___ Show" (1960's TV cartoon)
- ARENA
- Sports stadium
- Play area
- "In the ___" (Nixon book)
- Fan setting
- It often has a ring in the middle
- Bowl
- EGO
- Companion of the id
- Freud subject
- First person in ancient Rome
- Amour-propre
- APE
- Mimic
- Siamang, for one
- Ursine : bear :: pithecan : ____
- Aldous Huxley's "___ and Essence"
- EEL
- Slippery one
- Lamprey ____
- Unagi, at a sushi bar
- Grig, when grown
- ASEA
- Far from land
- On a cruise
- Totally confused
- Fishing, perhaps
- Between ports
- "...arms against ____ of troubles" (Hamlet)
- Using clippers?
- Making waves?
- Like pirates
- ORAL
- Big exam
- Viva-voce
- Rev. Roberts
- Nuncupative
- AGE
- Improve, as beef
- Census datum
- Big time
- ACRE
- Decent plot
- "God's Little ___"
- Israeli port
- Mediterranean city known anciently as Ptolemaïs
- STAR
- Common flag feature
- Guide for the Magi
- Macy's logo
- Canopus or Aldebaran
- ODOR
- Olfactory stimulus
- ____-Eaters
- Must, e.g.
- Wavy lines, in the comics
- TEE
- Kickoff aid
- Simple shirt
- Bit of a snicker
Naturally, there's a lot more to learning crosswordese than mastering this relatively short list. But if you continually adopt this practice every time you come across a repeating crossword answer, you'll be speaking crosswordese in no time.
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