CROSSY

CROSSY is a small word puzzle played in the browser at take5games.com, where it sits among a menu of other dailies by the same maker, J Krishnamurthi. There is one board a day, numbered from #1 on 30 October 2026, and every player on the same calendar date gets the same one.

The board is a 5x5 square. Around ten cells start grey with a letter already in them, and those letters cannot move. The remaining fifteen letters sit shuffled in a tray under the grid. You drag a letter onto an empty square, or tap the letter and then the square. When a row or column fills up and the five letters do not spell a word, the last letter bounces back to the tray, so a wrong guess never sits on the board for long. The puzzle is done when all ten words, five across and five down, are real.

Every answer comes from a list of the 4,000 most common five-letter words, and British and American spellings both count. On our look at puzzle #10 the fixed letters spread two to a row and column, which gives a foothold in each line without giving any word away.

A clock runs from the first move. Finishing in under two and a half minutes earns gold, under four minutes silver, and anything slower bronze. If you are stuck, "Show me a letter" fills in one square, up to three times a day, and each one drops your medal a step. There is also a give-up button that shows the solution and counts the day as unsolved.

It suits players who like Smartle-style tile shuffling or building crossing words without clues. A round is short enough for a coffee break, and the stats screen keeps your medals, solve rate and win streak on your own device. No account is asked for and we saw no ads on the page.