Puzzle of the day
One crossword-style clue, refreshed every day at midnight UTC. Solve it, keep your streak alive, and share how you did.
Loading today's puzzle… The daily clue needs JavaScript. If it does not appear, try the sample clues below or the practice page.
Sample clues from the daily bank
The daily bank holds more than 400 clues, from gentle definitions to harder vocabulary, so it takes over a year to repeat. Here are a few examples with the reasoning behind each answer. Try to solve them before opening them.
Frozen water (3)
ICE. The simplest kind of clue: a direct definition. With only three squares, ICE is the obvious fit. SLEET and SNOW are related ideas, but they are the wrong length.
Night before a holiday (3)
EVE. Think of Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. The clue defines the word by how it is used, which is common for short answers.
Glowing coal (5)
EMBER. EMBER is a crossword favorite because it uses common letters. ASHES is tempting, but ashes are what is left after the glow has gone.
Lukewarm (5)
TEPID. A vocabulary clue: one word defined by a synonym. If you know only the T, enter T???? in the crossword solver and scan for a word meaning neither hot nor cold.
Soak tea leaves, or sharply sloping (5)
STEEP. This clue gives two different meanings of the same word. When a clue joins two ideas with “or”, look for one answer that satisfies both.
Opening move in chess (6)
GAMBIT. A gambit is an opening in which a player gives up material for a later advantage. The word is also used for any calculated opening move outside chess.
Riddle-posing creature of myth (6)
SPHINX. In Greek myth, the Sphinx asked travelers a riddle and punished wrong answers. Rare letters such as X make this a useful answer for confirming crossings.
Found everywhere (10)
UBIQUITOUS. A long vocabulary answer. Once you have the U at the start and a few crossings, the unusual QU pattern usually confirms it quickly.
More word-solving tools
How the daily puzzle works
Every day at midnight UTC, Crossword Puzzle Solver selects a short clue from a rotating bank of more than 400 clues and reveals a fresh set of empty boxes for the answer. Everyone who visits on the same day gets the exact same clue, so it's something you can compare notes on with friends or family — no accounts needed.
Type your guess into the boxes and hit Check answer. If you're stuck, Hint reveals one more letter at a time. Once you solve it, tap Share result to copy a short summary you can paste anywhere.
About streaks
Solving today's puzzle extends your streak only if you also solved yesterday's — miss a day and the streak resets. Your streak and solved history are stored privately in your browser's local storage; nothing is sent to a server, and nothing is shared unless you tap "Share result" yourself.
Want more of a challenge after the daily puzzle? Head to the crossword solver for open-ended pattern searches, or the anagram solver to practice unscrambling.
Frequently asked questions
When does the puzzle change?
A new clue unlocks every day at midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), so the exact local time it changes for you depends on your timezone.
Is my progress saved if I close the tab?
Yes — your solved puzzles and streak are saved in your browser's local storage on this device, so they'll still be there next time you visit from the same browser. Switching browsers or devices, or clearing site data, will reset your saved progress.
What happens if I get it wrong?
Nothing bad — you can try again as many times as you like. We only track how many attempts it took so your shared result can reflect it, in the same spirit as other daily word games.
Keep practising
This is one crossword-style clue, not a full interlocking grid. Clues rotate from a finite bank and can repeat. For more to solve today, try 12 practice clues with worked explanations.