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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