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 Polish crossword
A Polish crossword is a krzyżówka, and the one in a Polish magazine usually has a panoramic layout: clues printed inside shaded cells, with arrows pointing at the answers and no numbering. Many also hide a hasło, a phrase spelled out by the letters in specially marked squares. For decades the hasło was the real object of the puzzle, and it was what solvers posted in to enter the prize draw.
The puzzles here are the plainer kind. The grid is numbered, the clues sit beside it under Poziomo (across) and Pionowo (down), and there is no hidden phrase to assemble at the end. The puzzle is finished when the grid is full.
Alphabet
Nine marked letters, each in its own square
Polish has 32 letters, and nine of them carry a mark: the ogonek in Ą and Ę, the acute in Ć, Ń, Ó, Ś and Ź, the dot in Ż and the stroke through Ł. Each is a letter in its own right, with its own place in the alphabet, so each takes its own square here. MOŻE and MOZE are different answers, and so are ŻONA and ZONA.
Printed krzyżówki often drop the marks and leave the solver to supply them. These puzzles keep them, so a Polish keyboard layout or the AltGr combinations will make solving much easier.
The digraphs are simpler. CH, CZ, DZ, DŹ, DŻ, RZ and SZ are combinations of letters in Polish, not letters of their own, so each takes two squares, as a Polish solver would expect.
Polish nouns change their endings across seven cases, and adjectives agree in gender as well. In ordinary Polish text, forms such as RODZINY, RODZINĄ, SZEFA and WIERSZA turn up as often as the dictionary forms RODZINA, SZEF and WIERSZ.
Spelling has its own trap. Several everyday phrases are two words in correct Polish but are often typed as one, especially in quickly written film subtitles: POZATYM for poza tym, NARAZIE for na razie, WOGÓLE for w ogóle, POPROSTU for po prostu and NAPRZYKŁAD for na przykład. They look like common Polish words, but none of them is correct, and none appears as an answer here.
Questions
Polish 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.
No. Polish magazine krzyżówki often hide a phrase in marked squares, to be read out once the grid is full. These puzzles have none. Filling the grid is the whole puzzle.
Yes. They are letters of the Polish alphabet, so each takes its own square and must be typed as itself. MOŻE and MOZE are different answers. A Polish keyboard layout or the AltGr combinations make solving much easier.
No. The .puz format stores one byte per square and cannot hold Ł, Ą, Ę, Ś, Ź or Ż, so it is disabled for Polish. Printing to PDF and sharing the puzzle link both keep the spelling intact.
Yes. Choose Polish as the puzzle language in the Crossword Generator, type in any theme words you want, and auto-fill completes the rest of the grid with Polish words. Then write your clues, and print or publish the puzzle here.
Build one
Make your own crossword puzzle
Set the puzzle language to Polish (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:
