Crossword Maker from Your Words and Clues

What it is for

Teachers use crosswords to practise vocabulary, and families make them for birthdays and quizzes. This tool takes your words and clues and interlocks them into a compact criss-cross grid with numbered squares, Across and Down clue lists with the word lengths, and an answer page. It prints as a true-size PDF, plus SVG and PNG of the first page.

It only uses your words — there is no dictionary — so it makes a criss-cross puzzle, not a dense newspaper crossword with black squares everywhere.

Worked example

Write one word per line, then a colon and the clue:

Anchor: Heavy hook that keeps a ship in place

The default seaside list of nine words (seed sea-1) becomes a 13 × 9 grid with 9 crossings. Lighthouse runs across as 7 Across in row 4; Seagull runs down from row 1 as 2 Down; Island and Harbour cross the down words lower in the grid.

A Spanish fruit list with English clues (seed frutas) fits eight words into 10 × 11 cells with 9 crossings; accents stay on their letters (PLÁTANO, LIMÓN).

Leave the clue out on a line and the tool still places the word but prints only its length — the geography list with "valley" and no clue (seed geo) shows the warning "Some words have no clue, so only their length is printed."

How to read the result

• width and height are the grid size in squares; crossings counts squares shared by an Across and a Down word.
• entries lists each word with its number, direction, clue, starting row and column (from the top left of the printed grid) and length — the answer key in data form.
• missing names words that share no letter with the others and could not be joined.
• The PDF starts with the grid and the clues; long clue lists continue on the next page, then the answer page follows.

Tips and common mistakes

• Mix long and short words with common letters; words that share nothing (AB and CD) cannot cross and are left out.
• Numbers follow reading order, and a square that starts both an Across and a Down word gets one number.
• For Arabic or Hebrew word lists the grid is mirrored, so Across words read from right to left and numbering follows the right-to-left reading order.
• The tool tries 40 seeded layouts and keeps the one with the most words, then the most crossings, then the smallest grid. A different seed gives a different arrangement.
• Grids are limited to 30 × 30 squares and 60 words.

FAQ

Can I play it on screen?

Yes. Open the result in Printshop and press Play on screen…: type into the squares, check your answers or show the solution.

Which separators work between word and clue?

A colon, an equals sign, a tab or a spaced dash (word - clue).

Can the clues be in another language than the words?

Yes — the clues are printed as written; only the words go into the grid.