Talk:2896: Crossword Constructors

The top ten most common letters in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, and the percentage of words they appear in, are: E – 11.1607% A – 8.4966% R – 7.5809% I – 7.5448% O – 7.1635% T – 6.9509% N – 6.6544% S – 5.7351%

source: https://www.rd.com/article/common-letters-english-language/ 172.69.58.187 (talk) 22:29, 19 February 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

At least one of those "words" is already available ...oreta is a genus of moths: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreta 162.158.154.64 (talk) 22:36, 19 February 2024 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

{Yoko} "ONO" was over-played in crosswords a few years back. "ORONO" (university town in Maine) was over-favored by one constructor. Not to mention a sandwich cookie. PRR (talk) 22:39, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

"ONO" has also entered English from Hawaiian, where it means (a) good to eat, delicious; (b) the Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri), a species of fish. 108.162.245.247 02:21, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

”Eni” is an Italy-based oil company.141.101.68.36 02:50, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

In contrast to crosswords in german newspapers, those in american newspapers are typically not dense, right? “Our” crosswords rarely have a single unused square. And this is obviously easier to compose if you can choose from more words. --172.71.123.39 22:48, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

I was looking around the internet for an example, and I found this example: https://www.50plus.de/spiele/raetsel/kreuzwortraetsel-1.html

If this is what you are talking about, Games World of Puzzles calls this a "Pencil Pointer" puzzle. I think technically the name is "Swedish Style" according to Wikipedia. They aren't typically the kind you'd find in an :American newspaper, but I do see them on occasion.

Generally, the American style ones are less dense than Swedish but more dense than British cryptics.

Also, American puzzles almost always have rotational symmetry (at least 180 degrees, sometimes all four 90-degree turns)Mathmannix (talk) 01:49, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

172.70.175.195 00:49, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm confused, on reading the Explanation, as to whether these words are wanted for crossword clues or crossword answers. I thought I knew, but it looks like other people might have the other idea. Either:

1. In order to fit something perpendicular to several other words, in a dense and/or symmetrically-gridded puzzle, it ends up asking for a (currently) fictional string of letters that cannot be given a valid 'Easy' clue. They're seeking to make "2024 Nicki Minaj hit song (5)", or similar, to become that, soon enough that they can publish the whole puzzle that they're otherwise happy with. Or,
2. For a cryptic clue with an anagram/subselection element, they want a way to include, letters that they've found them unable to mix in otherwise. e.g. "Taylor Swift's 'Oreta' with Tenacious D's initial spin (7)" -> "rotated" (ok, awkward example, but best I could back-contrive at a moment's notice... As opposed to something like "Turned a bit of carrot at Edinburgh (7)", which would already work Ok for the exact same answer), using various typical tricksy and misleading mannerisms of a Cryptic...
3. ...or both? Being only a(n unskilled) doer of crosswords, not usually a compiler of them, I might well be missing the details that someone deeper into crossword-lore takes for granted. 172.69.195.143 02:01, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

• Most likely Cueball and friends are constructing American-style crosswords and want to use ORETA, ENTA, and similar words as answers in their puzzles, so that they could clue them with "2024 Nicki Minaj album", for example. (I imagine that when John Lennon entered into his second marriage, crossword constructors of America rejoiced since they now had a well-known person that they could use as a clue for ONO.) Since the letters in their proposed album titles are common, I doubt that a cryptic crossword constructor would be hoping for such "words" to exist so that they could use them in clues. --108.162.216.150 04:06, 20 February 2024 (UTC)