How to Solve Crostic Crossword Puzzles
Crostic crossword puzzles originate from a form of poetry that predates the birth of Christ. In fact, the earliest form of crostic is credited to Quintus Ennius, a Roman who drafted a poem in which the first letter of each line spelled "Quae Q. Ennius fecit" to mean "Q. Ennius wrote this." The classic crostic crossword puzzle and its many variations we're familiar with today were a product of the 19th century, made popular by the musings of notable personalities such as Edgar Allen Poe and even Queen Victoria.
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Instructions
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Learn How to Solve Crostic Crossword Puzzles
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Understand that crostic crossword puzzles are also known as acrostic puzzles, so named from a combination of the Greek words "akron" (end) and "stikhos" (line of verse). By any name, the process used to solve the puzzle is essentially the same.
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Keep in mind that in order to solve crostic puzzles, your goal is to guess words that go with each clue, the first (or last) letters of which are then entered into a numbered diagram to help identify a phrase, verse or quote.
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Read the first clue provided to guess the first correct word. For instance, the clue may read, "Much commotion" followed by 4 blank spaces, each with a number written underneath.
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Assume that the word sought to the first clue is "fuss." Then the corresponding numbers beneath each letter of the word will tell you where that letter fits into the final verse or phrase.
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Be aware that some crostic puzzles require you to solve the puzzle in a slightly different manner. For example, the puzzle might call for you to take the first and last letter of each word (the double crostic) to form the final phrase. If the correct words were fuss, illicit, lama and mother, then the final solution would be the phrase "film star."
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Test your skill at solving crostic crossword puzzles at the Double Crostic website (see Resources below). You may register as a member, or peruse the site as a guest. Note that your browser must be Java-enabled to view the puzzles.
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Tips & Warnings
Elizabeth S. Kingsley is credited with creating the first double crostic puzzle, which was published in the Saturday Review in 1934. Since that time, the terms acrostic or anacrostic have also been used to define this type of puzzle. It simply means that the crostic has been combined with the classic crossword to make the puzzle.
