Other forms: crosswords
A crossword is the word puzzle of numbered clues and crossing white squares. Across and down, with the letters shared.
Newspapers have printed them since the 1920s and most carry two, since a quick crossword has plain definitions and a cryptic one has clues built from wordplay that take years to learn. The grid is symmetrical by convention. The setter is the person who writes it, and British setters use pen names. Solving one in ink is a small boast that people make about themselves.
1nouncrosswordA word puzzle in which answers are fitted into a grid of crossing squares.
“He does the crossword on the train every morning.”
Also accepted in games: crossword puzzle
From cross + word. Various word puzzles referred to as "crosswords" date back to the 1860s. The modern crossword puzzle was invented in 1913 by Arthur Wynne, who coined the name word-cross – crossword first appeared a few weeks later as a typographical error or deliberate transposition.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA