This is the public shelf of the Crossword Generator, the fastest tool for making newspaper-style crosswords (you can literally make one in just a few seconds). And once you’ve built a puzzle you like, you can submit it to be published here for anyone to solve online. And you can also print any crossword puzzle here, complete with the clues. Pass them around on paper! Physical media!
The puzzles on this shelf were made and published by other people using the Crossword Generator tool on this site. Using this tool you can make NYTimes and Guardian-style crosswords as well as criss-cross style, and they're all free to solve. You don't need an account, and there's nothing to install.
Click any puzzle to solve it right in your browser. Your progress saves on your device, and you can reveal an entry from the clue list when you're stuck. Prefer pencil and paper? Every puzzle prints as a clean blank sheet with a separate answer key, and each printout carries a QR code back to its online version.
Format
How to make a French crossword
A traditional French grid is clued differently from an English one. French mots croisés number the rows 1, 2, 3 down the side and letter the columns A, B, C along the top, then clue a whole line at a time: “Horizontalement, 1.” covers everything in the first row, with two definitions if the row holds two words. Nothing is numbered inside the grid.
These puzzles use the international convention instead. Each answer has a number in its first square and a clue of its own, listed under Across and Down. That layout reads the same on screen and on paper, and it survives being shared as a link.
French builds few compound words and does not stack suffixes, so long answers thin out quickly after seven letters. Swedish and Turkish still offer tens of thousands of words at fifteen letters; French does not. Most grids here therefore run from 7×7 to 13×13, filled with ordinary words such as CLAVICULE, COUVERCLE, ROULEMENT and OBSCURITÉ.
Alphabet
French crosswords drop the accents
A French grid holds twenty-six letters and no accents. É, È, Ê, À, Ù, Ô, Î and Ç all go into the square as their bare letter, so ÉTÉ is gridded ETE and FRANÇAIS is FRANCAIS. This is the standard convention in French puzzles, and it means a solver never has to decide whether a square wants É or È.
The two ligatures are single characters rather than accented letters. Œ becomes OE and Æ becomes AE, so CŒUR takes five squares and reads COEUR. The generator converts them as you type, so a word entered with its proper spelling still lands in the grid correctly.
A few pairs that spelling keeps apart look identical once the accents are gone. The crossing letters settle them, as in any newspaper grid.
What a French newsstand sells more of than mots croisés is mots fléchés. Their definitions are printed inside the dark cells, with arrows pointing at the answers, and there is no clue list. Those are not built here.
French mots croisés also have a clue tradition of their own. Perec and Scipion became famous for oblique, pun-driven definitions that lead the solver in circles before the answer lands. That is a craft in itself, and the clues on this page do not attempt it. They are plain definitions, and the pleasure is in the fill.
Questions
French crossword FAQ
Yes. Every puzzle on this page can be solved in the browser at no cost, and printed with a blank grid and a separate answer key.
Traditional French mots croisés clue a whole row or column at a time, with the rows numbered and the columns lettered around the edge. These puzzles use the international convention: a number in the first square of each answer, and one clue per answer.
No. French crossword grids drop accents by convention, so É, È, À, Ô and Ç all go in as their bare letters. Œ and Æ are typed as OE and AE, and the generator converts them automatically.
No. Mots fléchés print their definitions inside the grid's dark cells with arrows pointing at each answer. These are mots croisés: a numbered grid with the clues listed beside it.
Yes. Set the puzzle language to French in the Crossword Generator, type in any theme words you want, and auto-fill completes the rest of the grid in French. Then write your clues, and print it, export it as a .puz file, or publish it here.
Build one
Make your own crossword puzzle
Set the puzzle language to French (or any language), type in the words your puzzle is about, and auto-fill completes the rest of the grid around them. Write the clues, then print it or publish it to this shelf.
The showcase is an open crossword community: anyone can construct. Make a puzzle with the generator (the solver does the heavy lifting of filling the grid), write your clues, and hit Publish. Set up an author profile and every puzzle you publish gets collected on your own page, ready to share.
Hi, I'm Tex and I put this crossword generator together so that anyone can easily make themed newspaper-style crossword puzzles, in any language. I've got some more cool projects that you can see back at texs.org! Feel free to email me or send me a DM:
