Crossword Solver

The 7ESL Crossword Solver fills in the blanks of a stubborn crossword slot using the letters you have already worked out. Type the pattern of the answer, using a question mark for each square you do not yet know, and the solver returns every word of the right length that fits the letters you do know. When you have a few crossing letters but the clue still has you beaten, this is the quickest way to see the words that could go in.

How to use the Crossword Solver

Build your pattern from the known letters and a question mark for each gap. For a five-letter answer that starts with h and ends with se, you would type h??se, and the solver would offer words such as horse and house. The number of characters sets the length, so a four-question-mark pattern only returns four-letter words. Results appear as you type, so you can drop in a newly solved crossing letter and watch the list shrink in real time.

Reading the results

Each candidate that matches your pattern is listed as its own row with badges for context, including a CEFR level and part of speech, and any word with a full 7ESL entry links to its definition. That definition link is especially useful for a crossword, because the right answer has to match both the pattern and the meaning of the clue, and checking the sense quickly tells you which of several fitting words is the one the setter intended.

Tips for solving crosswords

The more crossing letters you can fill in first, the more focused the results, so it pays to solve the easy intersecting clues before turning to a hard one. Position your known letters carefully in the pattern, since a single letter in the right place can cut a long list down to a few strong candidates. Remember that a crossword answer must fit the clue as well as the grid, so read the definitions to confirm the meaning. For pure letter scrambles the Anagram Solver helps, and for the gallows-style guessing game the Hangman Solver uses a similar pattern approach.