Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor
"The largest, most up-to-date, and most useful."
Games Magazine, February 2004
"Groundbreaking"
Merl Reagle, San Francisco Chronicle crossword creator
"Long overdue but well worth the wait, this is the only crossword dictionary you'll ever need."
Mike Shenk, Wall Street Journal crossword editor
"You'll find 40 entries here under 'comprehensive.' I'd say that pretty well sums it up."
Book Description
With more than 1,000,000 answers, this volume contains more than twice as many answers as any other crossword dictionary. More important, it is the first crossword dictionary ever to comprehensively cover the clues and answers that actually appear in today's most popular crosswords, including contemporary slang, phrases, and brand names.
Meticulously compiled by two crossword professionals with a combined thirty years in the field, and based on a massive analysis of current crosswords, there has never been a crossword dictionary with the breadth, depth, and currency of this one. From Jim Carrey to Sister Carrie, Homer Simpson to Homer's Iliad, the wide-ranging entries include 500,000+ synonyms, 3,000+ literary works, 5,000+ films, 20,000+ famous people from all fields, and more than 100,000 fill-in-the-blank clues so popular in today's crosswords.
Featuring an introduction by New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, The Million Word Crossword Dictionary makes every other crossword dictionary obsolete.
About the Author
STANLEY NEWMAN is an acclaimed puzzle creator, editor and publisher. Winner of the first U.S. Open Crossword Championship in 1982, he published more than 200 titles during his seven-year tenure as head of Random House's Puzzles & Games imprint. Author or editor of more than 90 of his own books, he has been crossword editor for New York Newsday since 1988. And he holds the world's record, set in 1996 under Guinness Book conditions, for the fastest completion of a New York Times crossword: 2 minutes, 14 seconds. DANIEL STARK creates the daily crosswords for United Feature Syndicate. He is a prolific crossword constructor, whose puzzles appear nationally in newspapers, books and magazines. He is also the co-editor with his wife Roslyn of 26 volumes in the "Crosswords Challenge" series. Over the past 15 years, the Starks have created or edited over 10,000 crosswords.
Excerpted from The Million Word Crossword Dictionary by Stanley Newman, Daniel Stark. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction by Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor For almost as long as there have been crossword puzzles, there have been crossword dictionaries. Within just a few months of the fad for crosswords starting in 1924, books appeared to help solvers with their emus, okapis, esnes, and other strange but common denizens of Crosswordland. No matter how carefully crosswords are constructed, some words do show up in them much more frequently than in everyday speech and writing. In fact, many crosswords contain words that even a well-rounded person may never encounter outside a puzzle context. If you run into a puzzle that has too many answers you don’t know, or if the answers to two unknowable clues cross, you may need help to finish. The Million Word Crossword Dictionary, compiled by my colleagues Stanley Newman and Daniel Stark, has been created to break solving impasses. Two years in the making, and designed from the ground up, it contains more than 250,000 clues and 1,000,000+ answers, specifically chosen to help with crosswords of the kind found in newspapers, books, and magazines today. All the classic clues are here: "Celebes ox" (ANOA), "Arrow poison" (INEE), "Sea eagle" (ERN or ERNE), "Eskimo knife" (ULU), and other obscurities from the depths of the unabridged dictionary. The volume also contains tens of thousands of names from modern culture that frequently crop up in puzzles now: "Singer DiFranco" (ANI), "Golfer Ernie" (ELS), "Sarah McLachlan hit" (ADIA), "Peter Fonda title role" (ULEE), and so on. Of special help are lists of Oscar winners, Nobelists, Wimbledon champions, popes, makes of autos, dogs in TV shows, and dozens of other fact-based categories useful to puzzlers. The book even contains more than 75,000 fill-in-the-blank clues like "__ minute" (IN A) and "__ point" (TO THE), based on phrases you know but may not be able to complete on the spot. The result is the largest, most up-to-date, and most useful crossword dictionary available. Is it cheating to use a book like this? Well, say you’re stuck in the middle of a puzzle. You can give up . . . or you can get an answer or two, allowing you to proceed and finish the puzzle on your own. In a situation like this, it makes sense to get help. Using a reference book is educational besides. Whatever "rules" you follow, it’s ultimately your puzzle. Solve it any way you like!
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