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Tools for Solving Crossword Clues

Solving crossword puzzles is a favorite pastime for many people. Crosswords can be found in newspapers, magazines and puzzle collections. Whether you solve them confidently with a pen or not so confidently with a pencil, there are several tools you can use to help you complete your puzzle. Some of these tools are readily available to have next to you when you are working on them, others are online tools of various sorts to help the 21st-century crossword enthusiast.

Thesaurus
- A thesaurus is one helpful tool in solving crossword puzzles.
  
  A thesaurus is a comprehensive list of words and their synonyms, or other words that have the same or similar meaning. Many crossword clues use synonyms in a search for a word that will fit into the empty boxes. The crossword clue ̶0;picture,̶1; for instance, could indicate an answer of ̶0;photo,̶1; ̶0;portrait,̶1; ̶0;image̶1; or ̶0;painting.̶1; The thesaurus would give all of these as potential answers.
Dictionary
- If the thesaurus doesn't work, a dictionary might.
  
  Some crossword clues are definitions of a word. A dictionary can help in those cases. A crossword clue could read ̶0;kitchen storage area,̶1; to which the answer could be ̶0;cabinet̶1; or ̶0;refrigerator.̶1; Some crosswords make this a little easier by stating that the answer is defined by the clue. For example, ̶0;Definition - Present, appearing or found everywhere,̶1; the answer to which would be the word, ̶0;ubiquitous.̶1; Using the dictionary to look up the words in the clue may help. There are dictionaries geared specifically for crossword puzzle-solving.
Completed Crosswords
- Previously filled in crossword puzzles can help solve new ones.
  
  Some publications that contain crosswords use the same or similar clues repeatedly. Having old copies of these completed crosswords can help you locate the more difficult answers. Highlight or underline clues that seem difficult and for which you got the answers. Even if you didn̵7;t get the answer in an old issue, if it is the same clue, there may be letters you were able to fill in that you don̵7;t have filled in on the new puzzle.
Modern Crossword Solving Tools
- There are a number of online crossword solver sites including One Look and One Across. Each has word finders, a database of word meanings or a word pattern search. There are also software programs like Word Web Pro, which acts as a dictionary, thesaurus and word finder. Crossword Maestro is a software package for those of you that prefer cryptic crossword puzzles.

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