Kevin McCann - The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary

PUZZLEWRIGHT PRESS and the distinctive Puzzlewright Press logo are registered trademarks of Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2009 by Kevin McCann & Mark Diehl All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-4027-2134-2 eBook ISBN: 978-1-4027-7452-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available For information about custom editions, special sales, and premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales at 800-805-5489 or specialsales@sterlingpublishing.com. 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3

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C rossword puzzles have been a part of American culture for nearly 100 years. 21, 1913. 21, 1913.

In the 1920s, America experienced the crossword craze, and since then crossword puzzles have been a regular feature in most daily newspapers. They can be found in magazine and book collections, topical publications, and now on the Internet. But the puzzles we encounter today are not the same as those of the 20s, the 30s, or even the 80s. In days of yore, crossword puzzles were solely tests of vocabulary and facts, which did reward people who had broad knowledge of geography, mythology, history, and literature, but also tended to be dry and contained a great many entries that were highly obscure. The 1990s brought in a new crossword era. Top puzzlemakers such as Merl Reagle and Stanley Newman sought to make the crossword puzzle less stodgy and more hip.

And when Will Shortz took the helm as cross-word editor of The New York Times in 1993, his goal was to make puzzles more appealing to a broader and younger audience by expanding the required knowledge, by including pop culture references, by using humorous word-play, and by using unique and clever themes. In short, it was felt that crossword puzzles should be more fun. Nearly every syndicated publication has adopted this new style to some degree. Todays solver is the beneficiary of these changes. Crossword puzzles are no longer just a test of ones vocabulary. They demand more from a solver and offer more in return.

References to pop singers and television shows are commonplace. Tricky, punny, and sometimes diabolical clues are to be expected. But when solvers go to a typical crossword dictionary for assistance they find it to be of limited value. Most any dictionary will suffice if all the solver needs is a synonym for a straightforward clue. But most clues are not simple synonym clues. The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary As creators of The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, we set out with one primary goal: to create a more useful resource for the modern crossword puzzle solver. The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary As creators of The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary, we set out with one primary goal: to create a more useful resource for the modern crossword puzzle solver.

We believe that goal has been reached. How is The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary more useful? It has real answers to real clues, taken from a database of thousands of crossword puzzles. It does not aim to be a thesaurus with synonyms that never show up in puzzles. It highlights very common clue/answer pairs. It has up-to-date pop culture references. It uses entire clues, broken up into main entries and subentries.

Its appendix includes lists of the commonest crossword answers. Its appendix includes a description of the types of themes found in modern puzzles. Uses data from crossword databaseThe 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary creators are also the maintainers of the cruciverb.com crossword database. This database includes, among other things, clues and answers extracted from thousands of puzzles offered by mainstream crossword publishers, and is used by most of todays professional crossword constructors and editors. This very same database was used to create The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary. What other dictionary can claim to derive its content from the same resource used by nearly every crossword professional? Not a thesaurus Typical crossword dictionaries burden the solver with an abundance of synonyms, many of which have never appeared in crossword puzzles and likely never will.

Such dictionaries are more like a thesaurus and tend to hide possible answers rather than highlight them. The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary only includes clue/answer pairs that have appeared at least twice in puzzles published from 1997 to 2008. What this means is that you might see an entry like this: Bashful companion: DOC DOPEY Only Doc and Dopey are listed as answers because Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy dont show up often enough to merit inclusion. Common clue/answer pairs are highlighted If certain clue/answer pairs have appeared many times in previously published crosswords, The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary will highlight the answer in color . While there is no guarantee that a highlighted answer will be the one that a solver is looking for, the high occurrence rate indicates that it is a very strong possibility. Includes up-to-date pop culture references Unlike crossword puzzles of yesteryear, todays puzzles contain a healthy amount of references to pop culture. The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary includes clues and answers that refer to recent songs, movies, television programs, authors, politicians, etc. The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary includes clues and answers that refer to recent songs, movies, television programs, authors, politicians, etc.

It also includes common slang and other in the language words and phrases that have found their way into mainstream cross-word puzzles. Some dictionaries have no pop culture references at all. Uses the entire clueThe 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary is made up of main entries, often with many subentries underneath. For example, the clues Extinct bird (answer: DODO or MOA) and Flightless bird (answer: EMU, KIWI, or RHEA) would share the same main entry of Bird and then have the rest of the clue in the subentries, like this: Bird Extinct: MOA DODO Flightless: EMU KIWI RHEA Other dictionaries may have one basic entry for Bird, followed by the many possible answers: Bird EMU MOA DODO KIWI RHEA The first method is more helpful, since the solver has more specific information and can narrow down the possibilities. Dictionary Comparison To further illustrate the difference between The 21st Century Crossword Puzzle Dictionary and other dictionaries, see the . The differences are significant.

Many of the answers offered by other dictionaries have likely never appeared in a mainstream crossword puzzle. In fact, this is the case for the large majority of the answers provided for the Agent entry at right. Including these obscurities as if they were legitimately possible answers does nothing more than throw the solver off. Other dictionaries lump all their answers together, separating them only by length. Our dictionary includes subentries such as action under Affirmative, which help direct the solver to a smaller set of possible answers (in this case, one answer: NOD). Also, since other crossword dictionaries largely contain nothing but synonyms, theyre no help with more complex clues.

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