The Times Lexica

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Slide scattered letters back into a small crossword grid, easy and hard, every day.

on thetimes.com

The Times Lexica No 7902 on the web, part solved: a 6x6 grid with GRUEL down the right and RELY along the bottom, loose letters waiting around its edges

Lexica is The Times' daily word-slide puzzle: the letters of a small crossword have been pushed out of the grid, and you slide them back along their rows and columns until every word reads correctly. Two numbered puzzles appear each day, one Easy and one Hard. It needs a Times subscription.

About The Times Lexica

Lexica was invented by the puzzle setter Laurence May, who describes it as an "exploded crossword". The Times agreed in 2010 to publish it daily, and the numbering has run past 9,000 since, with two puzzles a day.

Each puzzle starts as a finished mini crossword whose letters have been moved out to the edges. A letter can slide only up and down its own column or along its own row, never diagonally and never into another line. Your job is to slide each letter back into place so that the grid becomes a valid crossword again, with real words across and down. All the letters you need are in front of you from the start; the puzzle is in working out which slot each one belongs to.

The Times publishes an Easy and a Hard Lexica every day on its puzzles site and app, and recent days stay in the list by date. Solving on screen is forgiving, since you can try a letter in a square and move it out again.

Lexica mixes word knowledge with the elimination logic of a grid puzzle, so it suits players who like both Scrabble-style words and Sudoku-style deduction. Access needs a Times subscription.

How to play The Times Lexica

Open the day's Lexica, Easy or Hard, on The Times puzzles page or app.
Look at the 6x6 grid, its black squares and the letters waiting around its edges.
Slide a letter along its row or down its column into a square; it cannot leave its own line.
Use the black squares and the word lengths to work out which letters belong where.
Keep sliding until every across and down entry is a real word.
Try the Hard puzzle once the Easy one is done.

Screenshots

The Times Lexica No 7916 in play: COLONY along the bottom of the grid and an orange D being slid into the top row, with Check, Undo, Reset and Solution above

The Times word puzzles page with a row of numbered Lexica puzzles, easy and hard, under their dates

Tips

Start with short gaps of one or two squares; few letters can reach them.
Vowels are scarce, so decide early where each one must go.
Check both directions before you commit a letter: it has to fit the across word and the down word.
Common word endings such as -ED, -ER and -S often sit at the grid's edges.