The Independent's Codeword

About The Independent's Codeword

The Independent runs its puzzles site with Arkadium, which hosts the paper's crosswords and a large library of casual games. Codeword is one of the paper's own puzzles: the game description says new Codewords are added Monday to Saturday, and each grid carries a running number (the game's screenshot shows Codeword #2484).

A codeword looks like a crossword without clues. Every white square holds a number, and each number stands for one letter of the alphabet, so all 26 letters appear somewhere in the grid. You start with two or three letters given, enter them wherever their numbers appear, and build words outwards from there. The key strip under the grid records which number you have matched to which letter, and the alphabet row greys out letters you have already placed.

The toolbar has a timer, a save button, a hint, a check, a reveal and a clear button, and the game has a leaderboard. Because there is no general knowledge involved, it rewards pattern spotting and a feel for English spelling more than vocabulary trivia.

It suits solvers who like logic as much as words, and anyone who finds cryptic clues too much but still wants a full-size newspaper puzzle.

How to play The Independent's Codeword

1. Open the Codeword page on The Independent's puzzles site and start the latest puzzle.
2. Fill in the starting letters: every square with the same number gets the same letter.
3. Look at partly filled words to guess new letters, for example a pattern like _A_ _ER.
4. Enter a letter and it is placed in every square with that number; the key at the bottom keeps track.
5. Keep going until all 26 numbers are matched and every word in the grid is real.

Tips

• Common English letters such as E, T, A and S usually belong to the numbers that appear most often.
• Look for short words and word endings like -ING, -ED and -TION.
• Each letter is used once in the key, so a letter already placed cannot belong to another number.
• Use Check sparingly: one wrong letter spreads to every square with that number.

Questions