/ ˈkrɒswɜːd; NAmE ˈkrɔːswɜːrd/ (also ˈcrossword puzzle ) noun
a game in which you have to fit words across and downwards into spaces with numbers in a square diagram. You find the words by solving clues :
to do a / the crossword
I've finished the crossword apart from 3 across and 10 down.
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WORD ORIGIN
said to have been invented by the journalist Arthur Wynne, whose puzzle (called a “word-cross”) appeared in a Sunday newspaper, the New York World , on 21 December 1913.