Crosswords

Version 1.0.0 · The little word club · Catalogue 31

A little clue. A lovely click. Three original minis for an unhurried break.

Choose a mini

The collection contains 01 A little green, 02 Good company and 03 Close to home. Each is a 5×5 grid with four black corner squares, 21 white squares and ten clued answers. The page opens on mini 01.

Use the numbered tabs to start a mini, or Next mini to move to the following one. After 03, Next returns to 01. Switching puzzles starts a fresh grid; it does not store the one you leave. Tapping the current mini’s tab also begins it afresh.

The exact rules

Fill every white square with the letter that makes both its Across and Down answers match their clues. Black squares separate entries. All answers in this collection are three or five letters, with no two-letter filler or abbreviations.

Each white square belongs to exactly one Across entry and one Down entry. A single entered letter therefore contributes to both answers at that crossing. A numbered square may start both directions. The clue gives the answer length in brackets.

The grid is solved only when all 21 letters are correct. Squares filled measures how many cells contain a letter, not how many are correct. A clue’s filled styling also does not certify the answer. There is no timer or point score.

Touch and mouse

Tap or click a white square to make it active. The active square is ochre and its word is highlighted. Tap that same active square again to switch Across/Down, or use the direction arrow in the clue bar. Tapping a clue selects its first empty square; if that answer is already filled, it selects the first square.

Use the on-screen letters to type. A letter replaces the active cell and advances within the current answer, stopping at its last square. Select another clue when ready. The clue bar above the keyboard always describes the current answer. The arrow at its right moves to the next clue in the current direction.

On narrow screens the clue bar and letter keyboard stay at the bottom of the viewport. Scroll the page to reach all clues, tools and Table rules. The game uses buttons rather than text inputs, so a phone’s native text keyboard is not needed.

Physical keyboard

Click or tap inside an embedded game before using physical keys. Keyboard input belongs to the focused frame.

A worked example

In A little green, 1 Across asks for something a baseball player wears on their head, with three letters. Select that clue and type CAP. The letters occupy the three white squares of the first row.

The C also starts a Down answer. Tap its square to select it, then tap it again if needed to choose Down. Its crossing answer is CHART, a picture of data. The shared C is already there, and the remaining letters help other Across clues.

To see how help is recorded, try a fresh mini, enter a wrong letter such as Z in that first square and press Check letters. One filled square is underlined. Select it and press Reveal letter: C replaces Z, and a small red dot marks that square. Finishing this attempt will record one reveal and one check.

Checks and reveals

Check letters marks currently filled incorrect cells. It does not fill blanks, correct letters or reveal an answer. Every press adds one to the check count, including a check where all filled letters are correct. Editing a marked cell removes its wrong-letter marker; you can check again after changing your answer.

Reveal letter fills only the selected square and adds a red corner dot. Reveals count distinct squares: revealing the same square twice still counts as one. A reveal is recorded even if the square already held the correct letter. Its assistance record remains if you later edit that cell.

When solved, the result says Solved. Beautifully done. if there were no reveals, or Solved with N reveals. It also reports Checked N times when checks were used. Check and Reveal are disabled at completion. Choosing another clue or direction after completion does not create another completion result.

A gentle strategy

Start with the short clues you recognize confidently, then use their crossing letters to narrow the longer answers. Read the tense and ordinary meaning carefully: a past-tense clue usually needs a past-tense answer. If two guesses disagree at a crossing, reconsider both clues rather than filling the square at random.

Use Check to find a mistaken guess without receiving a letter. Use Reveal when a single crossing would help you move on; the result records that assistance plainly. There is no penalty or competition to hurry you.

Settings, restart and results

The available choices are the three minis and the current Across/Down direction. This edition does not add difficulty levels, a timer, daily puzzles, sound settings or a larger collection.

Restart clears the current mini’s letters, wrong markers, revealed-cell records and check count. Next mini and the numbered tabs also start their chosen grid with all those counts reset. At completion, an embedded host receives one completed result containing the mini’s zero-based index and its check/reveal counts. There is no points total or winner against another player.

Session-only progress

Progress lasts only in the current live page and current puzzle. Switching minis, reloading, closing and reopening, or reconnecting an embedded game starts afresh. There is no account, cloud save or puzzle history. Opening this guide in its separate tab lets you keep the game page open.

Install and play offline

Visit the standalone game online over HTTPS, or localhost during local use. Use Install when the browser supports it. Otherwise follow the displayed browser instructions for adding the page as an app or to the home screen. Browser support and exact wording vary.

After an online visit has cached the application, the three minis and this guide can open offline. The cache contains the application files, not your entered letters, checks or reveals. The first visit on a new browser/device, or a visit after clearing browser storage, still needs a connection.

An embedded game does not register a service worker. Its Install control asks the host page to handle installation; the standalone page supplies its own flow. Separate embedded instances remain independent, and reconnecting one starts a fresh session.

If something seems wrong

Original collection and limits

All three grids, clue text and CSS artwork are original. A common-word construction search produced the fills; the clues were independently written and the crossings editorially checked. No publisher corpus, external font, runtime dictionary or network service is used. This edition keeps the accepted three-grid collection and its controls, without a daily feed or additional content.