Crossword

crossword block

Challenge your audience with a themed crossword puzzle. Crosswords are great for educational content, themed challenges, and keeping audiences engaged with word-based puzzles.

Use cases:

  • Weekly puzzle for newsletter subscribers or magazines: publish a new crossword every week and embed it in your newsletter archive or on your magazine site.
  • Vocabulary crossword: build a puzzle in a foreign language, including Cyrillic script or words with accents such as È and Ç.
  • Quick themed puzzle: enter a topic, let AI suggest the words, and have a finished crossword in a few minutes.

Setup

  1. Click on ADD A BLOCK and select Crossword.
  2. Enter a title and description, and add an image by clicking on Add image, GIF, or video/audio file (all optional).
  3. Under Minigame, open the GRID SIZE dropdown and select a size from 5 × 5 to 15 × 15. Smaller grids are harder to fill than big ones.
  4. Click on ADD WORD to add words to your grid. For each word, you need to specify the word, clue, and word direction.
  5. Added words appear in the dock below the grid. Select a word on the grid or in the dock to edit its clue, and drag words into the grid to place them. Any conflicting letters or word intersections will be marked in red. Empty cells will show as black fields in the finished crossword.

crossword grid with grid size and add word

Generate a word list with AI

Let AI suggest words for your puzzle instead of typing each one yourself.

  1. In the Minigame section, click on GENERATE WORD LIST.
  2. Enter a Topic, for example "Capital cities" (up to 50 characters).
  3. Use the slider under Amount of words to generate to select how many words you want (5 to 30).
  4. Select the Language of the words.
  5. Click on GENERATE.
    generate word list dialog

The dialog shows the maximum word length. It matches your current grid size, so select a bigger grid if you want longer words. Review the generated words and clues and edit them before you publish.

Arrange words automatically

Click on AUTO-ARRANGE above the grid to let Riddle place your words on the grid. The button is available once you have added words. You can still drag words to a different spot afterwards.

Letters and alphabets

Crossword cells accept letters from any alphabet your words use, including Cyrillic letters and letters with diacritics such as È or Ç. Your audience can also paste a letter into a cell.

Success message

When your audience has solved the crossword, the success message appears shortly after the last letter. Add your own text in the Success message section below the grid.

Keyboard and screen readers

Your audience can play the crossword with the keyboard, and the crossword supports screen readers.

Options

Click on the options icon on the right to configure the following settings.

Media

OptionDescriptionDefault
Show mediaToggle to show or hide the block's main image.ON
ScoreThe number of points awarded for completing the crossword.1

Game settings

OptionDescriptionDefault
Show success messageDisplay a message to your audience once they finish the crossword.ON
Show success message mediaAdd an image or video to the success message.OFF

Crosswords Options

OptionDescriptionDefault
Show "How to play" instructionsDisplay a "How to play" overview explaining how to navigate crosswords.OFF
Highlight current wordHighlight the currently selected row or column while your audience is solving the crossword.ON
Allow guess-checkingLet your audience check whether their entered letters are correct.ON
Allow auto-checking all lettersLet your audience auto-check all entered letters at once.ON
Allow answer-revealingLet your audience reveal the correct answer for a selected word.ON
Highlighted word colorThe color used to highlight the currently selected row or column.Yellow
Highlighted cell colorThe color used to highlight the currently selected cell.Light blue

Next steps

Table of Contents