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Printable arrow word puzzles

Sixty arrow word puzzles in three levels (easy 8×10, medium 10×13 and hard 11×15) to solve right here or print on A4, one per page, with the answers on a separate sheet. Free, no sign-up.

Puzzle 1 of 20 · Easy 00:00

Tap a clue or a square to start.

Type on your keyboard or with the letters below. Enter jumps to the next clue, the arrow keys move around the grid, and tapping a crossing square twice changes direction.

Print

One puzzle per A4 page. The answers go on a separate page; switch them off with the button if the sheet is for someone else.

Arrow words · Easy · nº 1Time: ________ · mentebrillanteapp.com
LISTENUNKIND
REPLIES
PUT ON CLOTHES
HAD A MEALEMPLOYS
NOT INOTHERWISE
CREEP
FEELINGORGANISE
WITHIN
SOFT, GENTLE
RABBIT BURROWS
OPPOSEIN THE PAST
DESIRE
NEON OR HELIUMCAME FIRST
OUR STARUNOPENED FLOWER
ROBIN, FOR ONE
SINGLE UNIT
RESENTMENT
STAG OR DOE

Answers

Easy · nº 1
H
A
D
A
M
E
A
N
O
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T
A
S
E
N
S
E
C
R
A
W
L
E
R
E
S
I
S
T
W
A
R
R
E
N
E
G
A
S
S
U
N
W
O
N
B
I
R
D
G
R
U
D
G
E
O
N
E
D
E
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R

How to play on screen

Tap a clue square (the shaded ones) or any white square to pick a word. The word lights up and its full clue appears in the bar under the grid, which is where you will actually read it on a phone. Type on your keyboard or with the letters under the board: each letter moves on to the next square by itself. Tap a square where two words cross twice and you switch between across and down.

Check marks wrong letters in red and locks the right ones in green, so they will not be overwritten when you type across them. The timer starts with your first letter and stops when you finish. If you close the page, the puzzle stays as you left it in this browser.

Reading the arrows

  • A square split in two: the top clue is for the word running to the right, the bottom one for the word running down.
  • The edge: the top row and the left-hand column alternate clue and letter. That is where the arrows bend: the top clue in a square on the top row gives the word that runs down the column to its right, and the bottom clue in a square on the left-hand column gives the word that runs across the row below it.
  • Every arrow is drawn in the first square of its word, on the side it comes in from. If you are not sure which clue belongs to a word, look for its arrow.

Printing

  • One puzzle per A4 page, with squares as big as the paper allows: about 22 mm on easy, 18 mm on medium and 16 mm on hard.
  • The answers on a separate page, after a page break. Switch them off with the answers button if the sheet is for someone else.
  • Booklet: prints all twenty puzzles in the level in one go, with every answer grid together at the end.
  • No adverts and no menus on paper. Just the grid and a header with the puzzle number and a space to write down your time.

For someone with tired eyes, the easy level fills the whole page with squares over two centimetres wide. And for proper large print there are the large-print activity sheets and the easy large-print crosswords, which are designed for exactly that.

The three levels

The level changes more than the size. Easy has around 25 everyday words, most of them short. Medium goes up to about 39 and allows words of up to nine letters. Hard has around 50 words and uses less common vocabulary, so some clues will not come straight away and you will have to work them out from the crossing letters. Every grid is complete: each word has its clue and there are no black filler squares.

If this is your first go at arrow words, start on easy even if it looks too simple: what takes getting used to is not the vocabulary, it is the arrows. What arrow words are and how to solve them walks through it step by step, and the tips for solving them faster help once you have the hang of it.

These puzzles and the ones in the app

The sixty puzzles on this page are only on the website. The MenteBrillante app has something else: a new arrow word puzzle every day in the same three levels, plus a league and a leaderboard by time. That leaderboard is exactly why the app's grids are not published here: it would give away the answers to days that have not come round yet.

And if you wonder whether they do anything beyond passing the time, we go through it honestly in arrow words for older adults: what they really offer.

Frequently asked questions

What are arrow words?

A crossword where the clues sit inside the grid itself, in squares with an arrow showing where the answer starts and which way it runs. There is no separate list of clues and no black squares: almost every white square belongs to two words, one across and one down.

How do I print it without the answers?

Press the “With answers” button and it switches to “Without answers”. Then only the puzzle prints, which is what you want for a classroom, a care home or a gift. With answers switched on, they go on a separate page so nobody sees them while solving.

How do I save it as a PDF?

Press “Print this puzzle” or “Booklet” and, in the browser dialog, change the destination to “Save as PDF” (on Windows it may be called “Microsoft Print to PDF”). You get exactly what would come out on paper.

How is this different from a normal crossword?

In a cryptic or a standard crossword the clues are in a numbered list beside the grid and many squares are only part of one word. In arrow words the clues are in the grid and the grid is dense, so every answer you get gives you letters for the words that cross it. The clues are short and direct, with no cryptic wordplay.

Are these the same puzzles as in the app?

No, on purpose. The daily arrow word puzzle in the app has a leaderboard by time, and publishing its grids here would give the answers away. These thirty are made for the website only, with the same generator and the same checked clues.

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