Quick Answer: Where Did the Crossword Come From?
The first crossword puzzle was created by Arthur Wynne and published on Sunday, 21 December 1913 in the "Fun" supplement of the New York World. Wynne called it a "Word-Cross"; it was diamond-shaped, with a hollow centre and no interior black squares. A few weeks later a typesetting slip turned the name into "Cross-Word", and the form went on to become a nationwide craze in 1924 and a global institution after that. The New York Times did not run a crossword until 15 February 1942.
On 21 December 1913, readers of the New York World's Sunday "Fun" section found a new puzzle among the usual riddles and games: a diamond-shaped grid of numbered squares with the word FUN already filled in at the top. Its creator, the paper's puzzle editor Arthur Wynne, called it a "Word-Cross". Each clue identified an answer by the numbers of its first and last squares, so the clue "2-3. What bargain hunters enjoy" led to SALES.
More than a century later, that one feature in a Sunday supplement has become a daily habit for millions of people around the world. Here's how it happened.
Before Wynne: Word Squares and Acrostics
Wynne didn't invent word puzzles. He built on older forms that were already familiar to newspaper and magazine readers.
Word squares, grids of words that read the same across and down, are ancient. The best-known is the Latin "Sator Square" (SATOR / AREPO / TENET / OPERA / ROTAS). Examples have been found scratched into walls at Pompeii, which means they are older than the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, and another was found at Cirencester in England. Word squares were a popular pastime in 19th-century England and America, turning up in puzzle books and children's magazines.
Acrostics, where the first letters of lines or answers spell out a hidden word, were another popular Victorian puzzle.
What these forms lacked was the modern crossword's key idea: a grid of different words that interlock, so every crossing letter has to fit two answers at once, each with its own clue. Wynne's diamond grid put that idea into print.
1913: The Word-Cross Is Born
Arthur Wynne (1871–1945)
Creator of the first published crossword
Born in Liverpool on 22 June 1871, the son of a newspaper editor. He emigrated to the United States in 1891, aged 19, worked in journalism, and joined the New York World. His "Word-Cross" of 21 December 1913 is generally recognised as the first published crossword puzzle. He died in Clearwater, Florida, on 14 January 1945.
Wynne's puzzle was a hit with readers, and the World kept running it every week. According to the standard accounts, a few weeks after the first "Word-Cross" appeared, the name was flipped to "Cross-Word" through a typesetting error. The new name stuck, and over time the hyphen disappeared as well.
The early puzzles looked quite different from today's. Wynne's first grid was a diamond with an empty centre and no black squares inside it. The rectangular grid with black squares, rotational symmetry and numbered Across and Down lists took shape over the following decade, as Wynne, his successors at the World and readers who sent in their own puzzles tried out new layouts.
1924: Crossword Mania
For about ten years the crossword was mostly a New York World feature, though a few other papers picked it up. Everything changed in 1924, when two young publishers, Richard Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster, made The Cross Word Puzzle Book the first title of their new firm. The book was compiled by the World's puzzle editors (including Margaret Petherbridge, later Margaret Farrar) and sold with a pencil attached. The publishers were so unsure of it that the first printing of 3,600 copies left the company's name off the book. It went on to sell more than 100,000 copies, and within months crossword books and newspaper puzzles were everywhere.
The craze was big enough to make headlines. Librarians complained that solvers were crowding the reference desks for dictionaries. A 1924 song called "Cross-word Mamma" cashed in on the trend, and the Times of London ran an editorial titled "An Enslaved America".
The New York Times was openly scornful. A 1924 editorial called the fad a "sinful waste in the utterly futile finding of words the letters of which will fit into a prearranged pattern, more or less complex," and said solvers got nothing from it but "a primitive form of mental exercise." The Times held out for another 18 years.
Britain and the Birth of the Cryptic
The crossword soon crossed the Atlantic. The word-games historian Tony Augarde dates the first British crossword to Pearson's Magazine in February 1922, and British newspapers adopted the puzzle during the mid-1920s craze. The Times of London printed its first crossword in 1930.
In Britain the puzzle evolved in its own direction. Edward Powys Mathers, writing as Torquemada, began setting for The Observer in March 1926. He is credited as the first compiler to use cryptic clues throughout a puzzle, and he published 670 Torquemada crosswords before his death in 1939. His successor, Derrick Somerset Macnutt (Ximenes), pushed for fair, rule-based clueing and wrote Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword (1966). Those "Ximenean" principles still shape the cryptic crosswords in UK papers today.
Try a Cryptic
New to cryptics? Our guide to cryptic clue types explains anagrams, containers, hidden words and more. Then try today's cryptic crossword.
The New York Times Era
The New York Times finally published its first crossword on Sunday, 15 February 1942, a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The paper's editors thought readers would welcome a distraction from wartime news. The daily crossword followed on 11 September 1950.
Margaret Farrar (1897–1984)
First New York Times crossword editor (1942–1969)
Farrar (née Petherbridge) co-edited the 1924 Simon & Schuster book that started the craze and went on to edit the Times puzzle for 27 years. She is credited with standardising many of the conventions of American crosswords, including symmetrical grids and fully interlocking ("checked") squares.
Farrar's rules still define the American-style grid. Every white square belongs to both an Across and a Down answer, so every letter is checked twice, and the pattern of black squares has 180-degree rotational symmetry. Those constraints are part of the reason a small group of short, vowel-heavy words turn up so often. Our look at the most common crossword answers covers them.
Farrar was followed by Will Weng (1969–1977) and Eugene T. Maleska (1977–1993). Maleska favoured erudite, dictionary-based cluing.
Other long careers began in this period. Bernice Gordon published her first New York Times crossword in 1952. Her last one ran in August 2014, when she was 100, which makes her the oldest constructor the Times has on record.
From Maleska to Shortz
In 1993 Will Shortz became the fourth editor of the New York Times crossword. Shortz holds a degree in enigmatology (the study of puzzles), a course of study he designed himself at Indiana University (1974). He founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in 1978 and has been the Puzzlemaster on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since 1987.
Under Shortz the Times puzzle added much more contemporary vocabulary, pop culture and playful wordplay, and it drew in a wider range of constructors. Thursday became known as the day for tricks such as rebus squares. The puzzle still gets easier from Monday to Saturday. Joel Fagliano was interim editor from March to December 2024 while Shortz was on medical leave after a stroke, and Shortz then returned to the job.
Indie Puzzles and the Digital Age
Since the 2010s a thriving independent scene has grown up alongside the big newspapers. Outlets such as the American Values Club Crossword (AVCX), The Inkubator (which publishes puzzles by women and trans and nonbinary constructors) and many constructor newsletters have brought new voices and fresher fill into the form. Tournaments such as Boswords have joined the long-running ACPT on the calendar.
Digital solving changed the habit itself, with streaks, solve-time statistics and sharing on phones. The New York Times said in December 2021 that its Games subscriptions had passed one million, and in January 2022 it bought Wordle. Crosswords have become a central part of the modern news-subscription business.
The New York World itself shut down in 1931, when it was merged into the New York World-Telegram. Wynne's invention outlived both the paper and its creator.
Crossword History Timeline
Before AD 79
The Sator Square
A Latin word square scratched into walls at Pompeii, one of the oldest known word puzzles.
21 December 1913
The first crossword
Arthur Wynne's "Word-Cross" appears in the New York World's Sunday "Fun" supplement.
Early 1914
"Word-Cross" becomes "Cross-Word"
A few weeks after the debut, a typesetting error swaps the name, and "cross-word" sticks.
February 1922
The first British crossword
According to Tony Augarde, Pearson's Magazine runs Britain's first crossword.
1924
The crossword craze
Simon & Schuster publish The Cross Word Puzzle Book, their first title, sold with a pencil attached. It sells more than 100,000 copies, and a national craze follows.
March 1926
Torquemada at The Observer
Edward Powys Mathers begins his run of fully cryptic puzzles, the start of the British cryptic tradition.
1930
The Times of London
The Times introduces its crossword.
15 February 1942
The New York Times Sunday crossword
The Times publishes its first crossword, edited by Margaret Farrar.
11 September 1950
The New York Times goes daily
The crossword becomes a daily feature of the paper.
1966
Ximenes sets out the rules
Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword sets out the principles of fair cryptic clueing.
1978
The first ACPT
Will Shortz founds the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
1993
The Shortz era begins
Will Shortz succeeds Eugene T. Maleska as New York Times crossword editor.
2014
A centenarian constructor
Bernice Gordon's final New York Times puzzle runs when she is 100.
2021–2022
Games go mainstream
NYT Games passes one million subscriptions (December 2021), and the Times buys Wordle (January 2022).
Frequently Asked Questions
When was the first crossword puzzle published?
The first crossword puzzle was published on Sunday, 21 December 1913, in the "Fun" supplement of the New York World newspaper.
Who invented the crossword?
Arthur Wynne (1871–1945), a Liverpool-born journalist working for the New York World, is credited with inventing the crossword. He drew on older forms such as word squares, but his interlocking grid of separately clued words was new.
What was the first crossword called?
Wynne called it a "Word-Cross". A few weeks later a typesetting error changed the name to "Cross-Word", which eventually became "crossword".
What did the first crossword look like?
It was diamond-shaped with a hollow centre and no interior black squares. The word FUN was pre-filled at the top, and each clue gave the numbers of the answer's first and last squares (for example, "2-3. What bargain hunters enjoy" = SALES).
When did the New York Times start its crossword?
The New York Times published its first crossword on Sunday, 15 February 1942, with Margaret Farrar as editor. It became a daily feature on 11 September 1950.
Where did cryptic crosswords come from?
Cryptic crosswords developed in Britain in the 1920s. Edward Powys Mathers ("Torquemada") began setting fully cryptic puzzles for The Observer in 1926. His successor, Derrick Macnutt ("Ximenes"), set out rules for fair cryptic clues that setters still follow.
When did crosswords become popular?
The first big boom came in 1924, when Simon & Schuster's first crossword book became a bestseller and newspapers across the United States rushed to add puzzles.
Be Part of the History
Every solver today is continuing a tradition that goes back to 1913. Try today's daily crossword, a quick mini crossword, or browse past puzzles in the archive. If you get stuck, the crossword solver can help.
Sources: Arthur Wynne (Wikipedia); "How the Crossword Became an American Pastime", Smithsonian Magazine; The New York Times crossword (Wikipedia); Edward Powys Mathers (Wikipedia); Nieman Lab on NYT Games subscriptions.