Word Circle Cross by Big T

Drag through the letters in the circle to spell a word, then let go.

The letters don't have to be next to each other — drag from any letter to any other in one continuous motion.

Every answer in the grid is built from the same set of circle letters.

Words you find drop into place in the crossword. Fill the whole grid to finish the puzzle — the crossings mean one word often hands you letters in another.

Rearranges the letters in the circle.

Purely cosmetic — it changes nothing about the puzzle. It's for when your eyes have stopped seeing new combinations in the current arrangement.

Valid words that aren't answers in the grid still count for something.

They go in the bonus jar, score five points a letter, and — most usefully — earn you hint tokens. Try words even when you can't place them in the grid.

Your running score for this puzzle.

Grid answers and bonus words both score. Finishing without spending a hint earns a bonus, as does finishing quickly, so hints have a real cost.

Ranks up as your total score grows.

Appears at the end of a puzzle when you cross into a new rank.

Reveals one letter somewhere in the puzzle, chosen for you.

You pick which square gets revealed.

Tap the token, then tap the square you want. Tap the prompt underneath to cancel without spending it.

Opens up roughly a sixth of what's left, spread across several words.

The biggest of the three, and the rarest — worth saving for a puzzle that's genuinely stuck rather than one that's merely slow.

Tokens come from solving puzzles and from finding bonus words.

Every puzzle you solve earns a 🎲; every third earns a 👉 and every fifth a ✨. On top of that, every 10 bonus words you've ever found earns a 🎲, and every 25 earns a 👉. Bonus-word hunting is the fastest way to build a stock of hints.

The empty crossword already tells you how long every answer is and where they cross.

This is the advantage Word Circle does not have. Before drawing a single word you know you need, say, two four-letter answers and one six — and once one is placed, its crossing letters constrain the answers through it. Solve the grid as a crossword that happens to have a letter bank.

The longest answer in the grid is exactly as long as the circle.

A six-letter circle always has a six-letter answer. It is worth the most, and because it is the longest slot in the grid it hands you crossing letters in more answers than anything else you could find first.

Take a stem and try S, ED, ER, Y, LY, ING — then RE, UN, DE and IN in front.

Systematic beats inspired. Here the grid checks your work for you: if a candidate does not fit any remaining slot length, it is not a target word, though it may still be worth typing as a bonus.

A word that fits nothing in the grid is not a target word.

Counting the empty slots by length turns a vague hunt into a short list. If every four-letter slot is filled, stop looking for four-letter answers and put the effort into the lengths still open.

The circle's arrangement shapes which combinations you notice.

Shuffling changes nothing about the puzzle and quite a lot about what you spot. It costs nothing, so use it the moment you stall.

Anything valid still scores, and it is how you earn hints.

There are far more valid words than the grid has room for, so most of what you can make is a bonus. Guessing costs nothing when you are wrong.

Easy 4 letters, Medium 5, Hard 6, Expert 7.

The grid grows with it, but far more slowly than the letters allow: about 5 answers at Easy, 7 at Medium, 9 at Hard, 11 at Expert. The crossword can only hold so many interlocking words.

About 4 bonus words are available at Easy against roughly 80 at Expert.

At Expert there are around seven valid words for every one the grid has room for. Almost everything you think of that is not in the grid is worth typing anyway — this is much more pronounced here than in Word Circle, where the list absorbs more of the available words.

Show or hide the solve timer.

Switch between light and dark, and pick a colour theme.

Landscape only. Puts the letter circle under your dominant hand.

Puts the circle at the top and the crossword below it.