Fill mode: words in the grid

Type letters in

Click a square and type. Space switches between across and down, Tab moves to the next answer, and Backspace clears a letter. Shift-click selects several squares, and Delete clears their letters. The entry bar above the grid shows the answer you are in and its length.

Autofill the rest

Autofill the rest fills every empty square with words from your word lists and keeps every letter already there. It works inside the browser, so the page never freezes while it thinks. A word that is not in your lists is flagged.

On Free, autofill uses the default lists and settings. Pro adds guided fill, theme words, locked words, words to avoid, rare words and every autofill option (Free and Pro).

Guided fill and theme words

With Guided fill on, you choose the words. Crossmith picks the entry with the fewest words that fit and lists them, best first, with the reason for any that would not work. Each empty square shows a dot sized by how many letters still fit, red when none do. You choose a word or skip, and you can change your mind on any entry: the list of your choices has a Back to here for each. Theme words places words you want, such as the answers of a themed puzzle, for certain, and then fills round them.

The inspector's tabs

• Suggestions: words that fit the answer you are in. While Guided fill is on this tab is called Options.
• Words: every answer with Lock, Clear, Exclude, Score for me and Swap. Lock keeps a word when you autofill, and Exclude keeps a word out of this puzzle (both are part of Pro). Score for me gives the word your own score in the filler (your own scores are part of Pro). Swap offers other words for that slot, changing only the crossing words that must change.
• Lists: choose which word lists the filler uses.
• Checks: repeated answers, answers that are too alike, words not in your lists, and forced letters (squares where only one letter fits).
• Stats: how the grid compares, such as the share of letters checked.

Word lists

The default list is Everyday British, 54,181 words that are common in published crosswords or score well. The Full list has 493,805 words, nearly all of the dictionary. There are thirteen themed lists, such as Animals, Food and drink and Sport, which you can tick for a themed puzzle. Pro setters can make their own lists and give words their own scores.

Copy, cut and paste a word

Ctrl+C (or Cmd+C on a Mac) copies the word you are in, Ctrl+X cuts it, and Ctrl+V pastes it into another slot of the same length. Ctrl+Enter accepts a forced letter.