Mini Crossword
NEWWorks on both desktop and mobile. Tap or click to play.
About This Game
Play a free Mini Crossword online. A quick 5x5 crossword you can solve in a couple of minutes. Perfect daily word puzzle.
How to play Mini Crossword
Objective: Fill the three-by-three grid so all three across answers match their clues, which completes the word square and shows the green Solved panel.
The board is a three-by-three grid, and every puzzle is a word square: the word you read across each row is the same word you read down the matching column. In puzzle #1, CAT fills the top row and the left column, ARE fills the middle, and TEA fills the bottom. Three numbered clues sit under the grid, one for each row. Get all three rows right and the square is finished.
You enter letters using the on-screen A-Z keypad below the grid, not your physical keyboard. Tap a cell to select it, which turns it purple and highlights its row and column, then tap letters to fill it. The cursor moves one square right after each letter and drops to the start of the next row at the end, so you can type a whole answer without re-selecting. Tap any cell to move the cursor there.
The Erase button clears whichever cell is currently selected. There is no penalty for wrong letters and no limit on guesses, so overwrite freely. The instant all three rows exactly match the answers, a green Solved panel appears with a Next Puzzle button. There is no timer, no lives, and no lose condition, so you cannot fail a puzzle, only finish it.
Six puzzles are numbered #1 to #6 across the top. Tap any number to jump straight to it, which clears the grid you were working on. The Solved figure beside the numbers tracks the highest puzzle number you have completed and is saved in your browser, so it survives a refresh. Finishing a later puzzle raises it; replaying an earlier one never lowers it.
Tips and strategy
Mirror across the diagonal
This is a symmetric square, so the cell in row 1 column 2 holds the same letter as row 2 column 1. If a downward reading looks wrong, check its mirror cell rather than the clue, since a mismatch there is usually where the mistake is.
Anchor with your surest clue
Fill the clue you are most confident about first. Every letter it places also seeds a crossing word, so one solid three-letter answer instantly gives you the opening letter of both other rows and speeds up the rest.
Read the columns early
Once two rows are in, read the three columns downward. Each column is itself one of the answers, so the partial columns often reveal the third row before you even need its clue.
Overwrite instead of erasing
Wrong letters cost nothing and there is no guess limit. Tapping a new letter replaces the current one, so you rarely need the Erase button. Just re-tap the cell and type over a mistake.
Tap to place the cursor
The cursor auto-advances left to right, but you can tap any square to jump it. Use that to fix a single middle letter without retyping the whole row from the start.
Frequently asked questions
Can I type with my physical keyboard?
No. Letters are entered only through the on-screen A-Z keypad below the grid. Tap a cell to select it, then tap the letter buttons. A physical keyboard does nothing here, which keeps the controls identical on a phone and a desktop.
What does the Solved number track?
It tracks the highest puzzle number you have completed, not a running total of every solve. Finishing puzzle #4 sets it to 4, and going back to finish #2 will not lower it. The value is saved in your browser and survives a page refresh.
Is there a timer or a way to fail the crossword?
No. There is no clock, no life count, and no penalty for wrong letters. You cannot fail a puzzle. You keep changing letters until all three rows match, and at that moment the green Solved panel with the Next Puzzle button appears.
Why do the clues only describe the rows?
Each puzzle is a word square, so the three across answers are also the three down answers. Clue 1 fills both the top row and the left column, which means a separate list of down clues would just repeat the same three words.