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Crossword Puzzle Day is recognized every year on December 21. On that day in 1913, British-born journalist Arthur Wynne published the first modern crossword puzzle — a diamond-shaped word game — in the Sunday edition of the now-defunct New York World.
2018-11-29
In honor of Crossword Puzzle Day this year, INSIDER spoke with professional puzzlemaker Brendan Emmett Quigley, whose puzzles have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and more, since 1996. He also posts new puzzles every week on his website, categorized into three difficulty levels: easy, medium, and hard.
According to Quigley, hard crossword puzzles often test your mind's ability to be "elastic," to manipulate or "play around with the English language." Compared to easier clues that are more straightforward, difficult clues "ask a little more from the solver" — even when the answers are the same.
For example, it's a lot easier to solve "meat for breakfast" than "strips in a club." The answer to both clues is "bacon," but the latter has a "surface reading that sounds nothing like what you're actually asking for," Quigley explained. Another classic example is "drops on the ground," which prompts solvers to think of a verb when the answer is actually a noun: "dew."
Drawing from Quigley's archive of hard puzzles, we rounded up a list of difficult crossword puzzle clues that will stimulate your brain, test your vocabulary, and challenge you to think outside the box.
Check them out below, but scroll down slowly as we've included the answers below each picture.
CLUE: They come in last (3 letters)
Your mind probably jumps to a competition — but think again.Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images
Answer: XYZ
Explanation: "X," "Y," and "Z" are the last letters of the English alphabet.
Explanation: Yosemite Sam is an animated cartoon character. A cel, or celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted, used in the production of animated cartoons.
Also, in case you didn't already know, clues that end in question marks indicate a play on words in the clue itself or the answer. In other words, don't take these clues too literally.
Don't take this clue at face value.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Answer: Toner
Explanation: Brother is a Japanese company that makes and sells printers, among other home and business products. Toner is a powder used in laser printers and photocopiers.
Explanation: "Juice" is a colloquial term that describes the amount of power a battery has or lacks. To charge an electronic device, you need to plug it in.
If you're still stumped, start thinking about popular movies.Jon Buckle/Getty Images
Answer: Aladdin
Explanation: Disney's "Aladdin" is set in the fictional city of Agrabah near the Jordan River in the Middle East. In the movie, Aladdin rubs a lamp and meets the Genie, who grants him three wishes.
Explanation: Chess is a classic board game with two players. Speed chess, or fast chess, is a variation on the original game in which each player is given a limited amount of time to make a move.
Lucy Yang was a lifestyle reporter on the INSIDER team covering style, weddings, design, and visual features.She graduated from Northwestern University with a double major in creative writing and psychology.
