Crosswordese: the short answers that keep appearing
Solve a few American-style crosswords and you will start meeting the same short words again and again: ERA, ALOE, OREO, EPEE, ETNA. Solvers call this vocabulary “crosswordese”. Learning it is one of the quickest ways to fill in the corners of a grid.
Why the same words keep appearing
A crossword grid is built so that almost every letter belongs to two answers, one across and one down. Long theme answers are placed first, and the short words around them have to fit whatever letters are left over. Words made mostly of common letters, especially vowels such as A, E and O and consonants such as R, S, T and N, are the easiest to fit into those tight spaces.
That is why constructors lean on words like AREA, ERA and ORE. They are not especially interesting on their own, but they connect other answers together. Editors try to keep them to a minimum, and many modern puzzles use far less crosswordese than older ones. Still, every solver meets it, and knowing it saves time.
Twenty short answers worth knowing
Here are some of the most common short answers, with the kind of clue you might see for each one.
- ERA – “Historical period” or “Victorian ___”.
- ORE – “Mined rock” or “Iron source”.
- ALOE – “Soothing plant” or “Sunburn soother”.
- AREA – “Region” or “Length times width”.
- EPEE – “Fencing sword”. A sabre and a foil are the other two fencing weapons.
- ETNA – “Sicilian volcano”.
- ERIE – “One of the Great Lakes” or “Lake near Buffalo”.
- OBOE – “Double-reed woodwind”.
- ARIA – “Opera solo”.
- ASEA – “Sailing” or “On the ocean”.
- ALEE – “Away from the wind, nautically”.
- ERNE – “Sea eagle”.
- ADIT – “Mine entrance”.
- EMU – “Flightless Australian bird”.
- IRE – “Anger” or “Wrath”.
- ODE – “Poem of praise”.
- OLEO – “Margarine”, an older word you will mostly meet in puzzles.
- ESTE – Spanish for “east” or “this”, clued with a hint that the answer is Spanish.
- ONE – “Single” or “Unit”.
- EEL – “Slippery fish”.
Notice the pattern: nearly all of them begin or end with a vowel, and several have a vowel in every other position. That is exactly what makes them useful to a constructor.
Using crosswordese as a solver
Treat familiar clues as free letters
When you see “Fencing sword” and four squares, write EPEE and move on. Those four letters become starting points for four crossing answers. Early in a puzzle, confident short answers like this are often the fastest way to open up a section.
Watch for alternatives
Some crosswordese clues have more than one common answer. “Mined rock” could be ORE, but a four-letter slot might want LODE. “Opera solo” is usually ARIA but occasionally SOLO. If a crossing letter disagrees with your guess, the familiar answer is not necessarily right. Check the length first, then the crossings.
Learn the clue signals
Crosswordese is often clued with small signals that tell you what kind of word is wanted. “Nautically” points to sailing vocabulary such as ALEE or ASEA. “In Spain” or a Spanish word in the clue points to a Spanish answer such as ESTE. “For short” or “abbr.” means an abbreviation. Our guide to crossword abbreviations covers those in more detail.
A worked example
Imagine a corner of a grid where you have no letters yet. Three clues cross it:
- 1-Across: “Opera solo” (4)
- 1-Down: “Sunburn soother” (4)
- 2-Down: “Crimson” (3)
ARIA and ALOE both start with A, which fits nicely: the A at the start of 1-Across is also the first letter of 1-Down. The second letter of ARIA is R, which gives you the start of 2-Down. A three-letter word for crimson starting with R is RED. Three quick answers, and every one is confirmed by a crossing. That is how crosswordese works in practice: it gives you a foothold, and the crossings do the rest.
Don’t rely on it too heavily
Modern editors increasingly replace stale fill with fresher words and phrases, so the list above is a starting point, not a cheat sheet. If you are stuck on a short answer that is not familiar, use its pattern. Entering A?I? into the crossword solver, for example, will list every four-letter word with A in the first square and I in the third. Then read the clue again and choose the candidate that actually fits its meaning.
For more practice at reading clues carefully, try our worked practice set or the daily puzzle.