Autodefinido (El País)

About Autodefinido (El País)

Autodefinido is the daily arrowword in the games section of El País, the Spanish newspaper. An arrowword (autodefinido in Spanish) is a crossword that carries its own clues: instead of a separate numbered list, each clue is printed inside a cell of the grid, with a small arrow showing the direction, across or down, in which its answer is written.

El País publishes a new autodefinido every day, the same grid for everyone who opens it, with the page dated at the top. The paper keeps earlier puzzles in an archive (its hemeroteca), so a day you miss can still be played later.

To solve it you read a clue inside the grid, follow its arrow and type the answer into the squares that lead away from it. Because answers cross, a letter you place for one word becomes a free hint for the word that runs through it, and the grid gradually fills in. There is no guessing of a hidden word of the day: every answer comes from a clue you can reason about.

The clues and answers are in Spanish, so it suits readers of the paper and Spanish speakers or learners who want a steady daily crossword. It sits alongside the paper's other daily games, among them its crosswords, word searches and the Palabra secreta.

How to play Autodefinido (El País)

1. Open the Autodefinido on the El País games site and accept the cookie notice to start the daily grid.
2. Read a clue printed inside a cell and note its arrow: it points across or down to where the answer goes.
3. Type the answer into the squares that run in the arrow's direction.
4. Use the crossing letters already placed to help with the clues that intersect them.
5. Fill the whole grid to finish the day's puzzle, or open the archive to play an earlier day.

Tips

• Start with the shortest clues and any answers you are sure of; their letters open up the longer words that cross them.
• Watch each arrow carefully: the same cell can hold a clue that is answered across while its neighbour runs down.
• When a word is hard, fill its crossing letters first and read the pattern that forms.
• If you miss a day, use the archive rather than waiting: the puzzle you skipped is still there.

Questions