3. Definitions
- Great variety may be attained in writing the definitions and as wide a scope as possible must be left to the constructor. The only requirement is common sense. This means that the definitions may be of the safe and sane dictionary kind, may be literary or historical, may employ secondary meanings cleverly, may be legitimately funny. Synonyms that are too far removed from the word and what Gelett Burgess calls “smarty-cat definitions” should be avoided.
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HOW TO SOLVE A CROSS WORD PUZZLE
There are two essential points that must be remembered by initiates into the cross word puzzlers’ fraternity. First, the numbers in the squares refer to the definitions; secondly, there should be but one letter to each white square.
Figure 1 shows a cross word puzzle challenging each and every one of us to solve it. Looking the puzzle over we find that 1 horizontal calls for a seven letter word meaning “disparage.” That is not so easy, so we leave it temporarily. We go on to the next one, which is a three letter word meaning “a cereal grass.” What else could it be but OAT? Therefore we ink in OAT in the proper squares. “Vice Admiral.” That most assuredly must be VA. We place that into position. The ninth, tenth and eleventh do not come to our minds immediately, so we pass them up. We will catch them on the cross check. Twelve is familiar, however, and with a little thought we place LO in the vacant squares. The rest do not come to us, so we leave them also, and turn to the verticals.
EXAMPLE
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 | 8 | 9 | ||||
| 10 | 11 | |||||
| 12 | 13 | 14 | ||||
| 15 | 16 | |||||
| 17 |
Fig. 1