Criss-Cross Puzzle Maker
A free criss-cross puzzle maker: paste your word list, set the grid, and get a printable grid plus its filled answer page. No clues, no login, no signup.
Nothing to print yet. Go back to the page, paste your word list, and press Generate criss-cross. Print again and you will get the puzzle page, followed by its answer page.
Your puzzle
Both pages are drawn at print resolution, so the grid lines stay solid on paper.
What a criss-cross puzzle is — and what it is not
A criss-cross puzzle fills a grid with your words so they cross each other, the way the black squares would force them to in a crossword. The one thing it does not have is clues. You supply the word list; the solver has to place each word into the grid from that list. There is no definition to read, no "1 across" to decode — which is exactly why it is quicker to build and gentler for younger solvers than a clue-based crossword.
If what you actually need is prompts — a definition the solver reads and then writes the answer — a criss-cross will not do that. That is a different job: a word search hides the words for the solver to find, and a cryptogram encodes a sentence for them to crack. The criss-cross sits between the two: the words are given, the layout is the puzzle.
Making a criss-cross here takes five steps
- Paste or type your words into the box. One per line, or separated by commas.
- Set the grid size. 15 is a good default; the section on grid size below gives you the numbers.
- Press Generate criss-cross.
- Words are placed longest first and allowed to cross where their letters agree — that shared-letter crossing is what makes the grid look deliberate instead of scattered.
- Use Download PNG or Download PDF for the page you are looking at, or Print to send it straight to the printer.
Every setting, and what it actually does
Grid size (5 to 30)
The grid is square, so one number sets both sides. Words are placed longest first, and a word cannot be placed if it is longer than the grid is wide — that is the only hard failure in the tool. Leave it at 15 for a ten-word list; go to 20 or more for long vocabulary. Unlike a word search, a criss-cross has no direction checkboxes: words run horizontally or vertically only, because the crossing rule already decides the angles.
Font size (10 to 26)
Letter height inside the grid and in the word bank. Younger readers and low-vision solvers do better at 20 and above. Dense grids with many words read better at 12 to 16, because the letters have to stay inside their cells.
Word bank columns (1 to 6)
How many columns the list under the grid is set in. Use 1 or 2 when your words are long, 4 to 6 when they are short. Three suits most lists.
Seed (optional)
Left blank, you get a fresh layout every time you press the button. Filled in, the layout is pinned. See the next section.
Reproducible puzzles: how the seed works
Most puzzle makers give you a new arrangement on every press and no way back to the one you just printed. That is awkward the moment you lose the answer page, or want the same puzzle for a second class next term. This criss-cross maker takes a seed: type anything into the seed box — a date, a class code, a word — and the layout is derived from that seed combined with your word list.
Same seed plus same word list, in the same order, gives the same grid every time. Something like gr3-unit4 is enough.
Two honest limits on that promise:
- The seed is hashed together with the words, not with the words separately. Add, drop or reorder a single word and you get a different layout even with the same seed.
- The seed pins the placement, not the page. Change the grid size, the font size or the columns and the drawing changes, as it should.
What this is for: write the seed next to the puzzle title in your plan book, and you can rebuild the exact page months later, answer page included.
When a word does not fit, the generator says so
Placement runs longest word first. For each word the tool checks every legal spot on the grid and keeps the one that crosses the most letters already placed, falling back to the most central isolated spot when nothing crosses yet. Words are allowed to overlap where their letters agree. When a word still cannot go anywhere, it is not quietly dropped.
A red line under the puzzle title names every word that did not fit, and the word bank lists only the words that really are in the grid. Your puzzle page never promises a word a solver cannot find.
Three ways to clear the warning:
- Raise the grid size — the fix that works almost every time.
- Shorten or split the word. A 16-letter phrase in a 14-wide grid will never land; two shorter entries will.
- Drop the longest word from the list for this puzzle and place it in its own smaller grid.
Choosing a grid size that fits your longest word
The hard rule is simply that your longest word, counted in letters, has to be no longer than the grid is wide. That is the floor, not the target. A long word placed early eats a whole line and everything after it has to work around the gap, so lists with long words need more room than the floor suggests.
A working rule of thumb: set the grid to roughly twice the length of your longest word for lists of ten to twenty words.
| Longest word | Words in the list | Grid size to try |
|---|---|---|
| 5 letters | 8 to 12 | 12 |
| 7 letters | 10 to 15 | 15 |
| 9 letters | 12 to 18 | 18 |
| 12 letters | 10 to 15 | 22 to 24 |
| 15 letters | 8 to 12 | 26 to 28 |
Empty cells are printed as solid black blocks, so the shape of your fill is visible at a glance: the white outlined squares are exactly the letters of your words, and the black blocks are the gaps between them. A grid where the black heavily outweighs the white means your list is short for that size — lower the grid size or add words, otherwise the solver has very little to hunt for.
Criss-cross, word search, or crossword — which to pick
These three get confused because they all put words in a grid. They are different jobs:
| What the solver gets | Best when | |
|---|---|---|
| Criss-cross | The word list, and a grid the words cross in. No clues. | You want a fill-in grid fast, or a young class that is not ready for clues. |
| Word search | Words hidden in a sea of letters, to be found. | You want a scanning task — the looking is the point. |
| Crossword (clue-based) | A definition per answer that the solver reads, then writes. | You want recall from a prompt. (This site does not build clue-based crosswords.) |
The quick test: if the solver should read a clue and write the answer, you need a crossword — which this generator does not make. If the solver should find hidden words, use the word search generator. If the solver should place given words into a crossing grid with no clues, this criss-cross maker is the one.
Your word list never leaves the browser
There is no upload step because there is no upload. The whole generator runs as script in this tab: no request is sent, nothing is written to storage, and there is no account for a list to be attached to. Close the tab and the words are gone.
Two consequences that matter in practice. First, once this page has loaded you can drop off the network and keep making puzzles — useful on a locked-down school network or a flaky hotel connection. Second, a word list built from student names, an unpublished title or an internal product name never sits on anybody else's machine.
Printing and exporting
Both pages are drawn on a 1600 by 2072 pixel sheet in black line work on white, with no background fills to eat toner.
- PNG downloads the sheet at full pixel size, good for dropping into a worksheet document or a slide.
- PDF writes a US Letter page, 612 by 792 points, with the sheet fitted inside half-inch margins — about 210 dots per inch of line work.
- Print sends the page you are currently looking at to your printer. Switch to the answer tab first if you want the solution on paper.
Printing in black and white is the default, not a setting you have to hunt for.
Word lists that work well
- A week's spelling list, which is the most common use by far.
- Vocabulary from the unit you are finishing, so the puzzle doubles as review.
- Student names in the first week, as an icebreaker.
- A party theme — a birthday, a holiday table, a baby shower.
- ESL sets built around one situation: a kitchen, an airport, a doctor's office.
- Themed sets for an activity book, where you need many puzzles at a consistent difficulty.
What else the same word list can make
The word box above feeds every puzzle type on this site, not just criss-cross. These are the eleven built in:
The other ten live on the home page generator, where you can switch type without retyping your list. The word puzzle maker page covers the types that run on a word list, the word puzzle generator page covers getting the identical grid back later with a seed, and puzzle maker online explains why that phrase also finds jigsaw and photo-puzzle tools. The maze generator is the one type here that takes no word list at all: it works from a grid size and prints the route on its own answer page.
Frequently asked questions
Is this criss-cross puzzle maker free?
Yes, and there is nothing to unlock. No account, no credits, no export limit, no watermark.
Do I have to sign up?
No. There is no login anywhere on this page. Open it, paste your words, generate.
What is the difference between a criss-cross and a crossword?
A criss-cross has no clues. You hand over the word list and the solver places the words into the crossing grid. A crossword gives a clue for each answer and the solver writes the word from the clue. If you need clues, this tool does not make that kind — use a word search or cryptogram instead.
How many words do I need?
At least two. With the default 15 by 15 grid, ten to fifteen words is a comfortable fill. Past about thirty the word bank starts to run out of room, so split a long list across two grids.
Why is one of my words missing from the grid?
There was no room for it at the current grid size. The red line under the title names it. Raise the grid size or shorten the word.
Can I build the same puzzle again next term?
Yes. Put a seed in the seed box before generating and write it down. The same seed with the same word list in the same order rebuilds the same grid.
Can I use numbers or two-word entries?
Yes. Digits are kept, so entries like R2D2 or 1776 work. A space inside an entry is kept in the word bank and removed inside the grid, so ICE CREAM is listed with its space and placed as ICECREAM.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The controls stack into one column on a narrow screen, and both pages scale to fit. Use the browser's share or print menu for output.
Can I make a criss-cross from a sentence instead of a list?
No — this type takes a word list, not a sentence. If you want a sentence turned into a puzzle, the word puzzle maker page covers the types that run on a single line of text (cryptogram, hidden message, fallen phrase).
How do I make a criss-cross puzzle?
Type or paste your words into the box, choose a grid size, and press generate. The tool places the words where their letters cross and draws both the puzzle page and its filled answer page. There are no clues to write and no account to open — the word list is the puzzle.
How do you solve a criss-cross puzzle?
The word bank under the grid lists every word to place. Drop each word into the white outlined squares so that wherever two words meet, the square they share shows the same letter. Words run straight across or straight down only. When a word will not fit, the red line under the title names it — raise the grid size and try again.
How do you play a criss-cross puzzle?
Playing and solving are the same thing here: it is a fill-in, not a find. You are handed the words, not a list of clues, so you place each one into the grid until the white squares are covered. The solid black blocks are gaps and are not part of any word.
What is a criss-cross puzzle?
A grid you fill with words that cross each other, with no clues attached. You get the word list and place each word into the crossing grid; a crossword instead gives you one clue per answer and you write the word from the clue. A criss-cross is the quicker one to build and the gentler one for younger solvers.
How do I start a criss-cross for my class?
A blank word box is enough. Paste the week's spelling words or the vocabulary you are finishing, leave the grid at 15 for a ten-word list, press generate, and print the puzzle and answer pages together. The same seed rebuilds the identical sheets next term.