Play Lovatts Free Online Cryptic Crossword

Test your lateral thinking with Christine Lovatt’s daily online Cryptic Crossword. Cryptic means ‘mystifying or having secret meaning’, so in these crosswords the answers to the clues are deliberately hidden. In every clue there are two ways to get the answer – There’s the true definition and the sneaky way round. It’s just a matter of knowing how to look at each clue to unlock the answer. Good luck!

A new version of this puzzle is coming soon. PLAY THE BETA VERSION →

Not sure how to start? View our online cryptic crosswords tutorial and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a cryptic crossword expert! Christine Lovatt, Australia’s Cryptic Queen, will talk you through a simple cryptic crossword step-by-step and clue by clue.

For instructions on how to use our Cryptic grid, refer to our user guide below ↴

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More about Cryptic Crosswords

Although the crossword puzzle was invented in the United States (by an Englishman), cryptic crosswords are a British creation. The first all-cryptic crossword in English was created in 1926 by poet and translator Edward Powys Mathers, who called himself Torquemada after the Spanish Grand Inquisitor. His clues were fairly obscure and difficult to solve. After him came Ximenes (Derrick Macnutt) who devised some guidelines for setting fair clues. His successor Azed (Jonathan Crowther) came up with these 3 simple elements: 1. a precise definition 2. a fair subsidiary indication 3. nothing else. The cryptic crossword has never really taken off in the States in a big way. As well as Britain, they are popular in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and several other English-speaking countries. Cryptic crosswords exist in other languages, but they are not quite the same as English cryptics. The clues rely on wordplay, letter-play and ambiguity of meaning in words.

Cryptic Crossword Keyboard Shortcuts

Cryptic Crossword Puzzle User Guide

About Puzzle Modes: Quick vs Challenge

Quick Mode offers helpful tools such as Hints and Visual Guides to assist you as you progress through solving the crossword puzzle. Hints give you the option to reveal a correct letter or word for the selected cell or word-space. Visual Guides help by highlighting cells in a green shade to indicate the letters entered into the word-space are correct. Conversely, cells with incorrect letters stand out in a contrasting shade.

Challenge Mode provides a more difficult puzzle-solving experience, as both the Hints and Visual Guide help options are disabled.

If you wish to switch modes after you’ve commenced playing a puzzle, simply click/tap the Menu button and select Main Menu. Once there, you can re-enter the puzzle in the same or alternate mode and resume solving it from where you previously left off.

Delete/Change Letter
Click/Tap on the letter you wish to delete. Once the square cell is highlighted, you can either use the Backspace key to delete the letter or simply type in the new letter you desire.

Timer
The Timer indicated by the clock icon begins counting as soon as you start the crossword. If you do not like working against the clock, select Menu then Hide at the top of the puzzle. Click/tap Show to restore your view of the Timer.

Hints
Click/Tap the Hints button in the top menu bar to reveal Word or Letter hint options. Click/Tap the Hint button again to close the menu. Reminder, Hints are only available in quick mode.

Letter hints: Fills in the correct letter for the selected square cell
Word hints: Fills in the correct word for the highlighted word-space or clue. If you use a Hint, you won’t get a ranking.

Reveal Provides a 5-second peek at the entire solution.

Check Checks for mistakes. Click/tap the Reveal button indicated by the tick icon to display incorrect letters in red for 5 seconds OR select the red Clear button to remove any incorrect letters from the grid.

Timer
The Timer, indicated by the clock icon, begins counting as soon as you begin the crossword. If you prefer a leisurely pace without the Timer, you can adjust its visibility in the crossword Menu. To do this, simply, click/tap on the Menu button, locate the Time and use the toggle to either hide the Timer (toggle turns grey) or restore its visibility (toggle turns green).

Pause
To pause during play, click/tap the pause icon. Click/Tap Resume Puzzle when you wish to restart play.

Reset
To clear the grid and restart the puzzle and Timer, click/tap Menu and then select Reset Puzzle.

Menu Options
Show Timer: Toggle to show or hide the timer.
Visual Guides: Enable or disable visual guides (only available in Quick Mode).
Allow Hints: Toggle to enable or disable hints (only available in Quick Mode).

Completion Click/tap Continue to show the Scorecard with your time, rank and RETURN option so you can play again. N/A – no ranking, you used a Hint.