CrypCross Solver

CrypCross Solver can be used to solve cryptic and non-cryptic crossword clues.

Specify a pattern of known and unknown letters and CrypCross Solver will list all known words which match this pattern. This is handy for solving both cryptic and non-cryptic clues.

Non-cryptic crossword clues:
★ For single word clues WordNet database is used to search for synonyms of the word
★ If non-blank letters are included in the search pattern then only words matching this pattern are returned
★ If no clue is entered then all words matching the search pattern are returned

Cryptic crossword clues:
★ WordNet database is used to search for synonyms of words in the clue
★ Anagrams of the required number of letters are searched for where words or collections of adjacent words which, when combined, have the required number of letters
★ Hidden words inside the clue are revealed (for example, the clue "One found in slippers only" contains the hidden word "person")
★ Homophones or sound-alike answers are searched for
★ Deletions, where deleting a letter from a word in the clue or one of its synonyms provides a potential answer, are searched for

The code to attempt to solve cryptic clues is part of an ongoing project. In its current state it can solve some cryptic clues from the UK newspaper Metro. At present it is only able to solve a small number of clues found in the Times newspaper. We hope to improve on this and release future updates soon.

Note: the app needs approx. 40Mb of free space for creating temporary files used to deploy WordNet.