A beginner's guide to the British quick crossword

Quick crosswords and cryptic crosswords

British newspapers usually run two kinds of crossword. A cryptic clue hides its answer in wordplay: anagrams, hidden words, sounds-like and so on. A quick crossword, sometimes called a concise crossword, just gives you a definition. Nibble is the quick kind, all the way through. If you have been put off crosswords by cryptic clues, you can forget all of that here. Every clue means exactly what it says.

How a Nibble grid is built

• Monday to Saturday is a 5x5 grid. Sunday's Big Nibble is 7x7, but its answers are still three to five letters long, so it is more words rather than longer ones.
• Every answer is at least three letters. There are no two-letter answers, no abbreviations and no proper names.
• The pattern of black squares is symmetrical: turn the grid upside down and it looks the same. That is a standard British convention.
• Every answer crosses at least two others, so no word is stranded on its own.

Unchecked squares

In an American-style grid, every letter belongs to both an across and a down word. British grids allow some squares that belong to only one word. These are called unchecked squares, because no crossing answer checks them. You often find them in Nibble's corners. Our grids allow at most one unchecked square in any answer, so every word has nearly all its letters confirmed by a crossing. The practical upshot: if you are unsure of an answer, the crossings will usually settle it, but not always the very last letter.

Reading a clue precisely

In a quick crossword the clue and the answer can swap places in a sentence. That is the test to apply: if you could replace the clue with your answer and the sentence would still work, you are on the right lines. Three habits help.

Match the word type

A clue that is an adjective has an adjective answer; a verb clue has a verb answer. "Joyful" wants a describing word, "Encounter someone" wants an action, and "A unit of weight" wants a thing. If your answer is the right idea but the wrong kind of word, it is wrong.

Match the tense and number

Clues keep their grammar exactly. In past Nibbles, "Set alight" was LIT, past tense, not LIGHT. "Carries out an action" was DOES, matching the -s on carries. "Should" was OUGHT, a single word that can take the place of should in a sentence. When a clue's verb ends in -ed or -s, the answer almost always does the same, or uses the equivalent form.

Notice the labels

A word such as informally, or a phrase such as an informal word for, tells you the answer is casual or conversational. "An informal greeting" was HEY, not HELLO. A clue built on such as, followed by an example, wants the group the example belongs to, not the example itself. Occasionally a short note tells you the grammar, such as which subject a verb goes with. These notes are there to make the clue fair, so read them.

Enumerations and crossing letters

The number in brackets after each clue, called the enumeration, is the length of the answer. It is your first filter. "Joyful (5)" rules out GLAD and CHEERFUL straight away and leaves you with HAPPY, MERRY, JOLLY and a few others.

Crossing letters do the rest. A clue with several possible answers of the right length is not a flaw; it is an invitation to solve something else first. The crossings will decide.

British spelling and vocabulary

Nibble uses British spelling throughout, so expect GREY rather than GRAY, COSY rather than COZY and AXE rather than AX. Answers are also everyday British words: a car has a BOOT, a road has LORRIES, and you buy a packet of CRISPS. If an American word fits the definition but not the crossings, try the British one.

Worked example: Nibble No. 4

This is the real 5x5 from 28 October 2026. The clues were:

• Across: 2 Blend together (3). 4 Previously owned (4). 6 Before the expected time (5). 8 Not imprisoned (4). 9 An informal greeting (3).
• Down: 1 Expected at a certain time (3). 2 Joyful (5). 3 Doing no work (4). 5 A secure box for valuables (4). 7 An evergreen with red fleshy berries (3).

Several clues have more than one sensible answer: Joyful (5) could be HAPPY or MERRY, and Doing no work (4) could be IDLE or LAZY. So start with the clues that have only one.

1. 7 Down, An evergreen with red fleshy berries (3). Holly has five letters; the three-letter evergreen is YEW. Its Y is the last letter of 6 Across.
2. 6 Across, Before the expected time (5), ending in Y: EARLY. This one word crosses four down answers at once.
3. 2 Down, Joyful (5), now has R as its third letter. HAPPY has a P there, so it must be MERRY.
4. 3 Down, Doing no work (4), now has L as its third letter. LAZY has a Z there, so it is IDLE.
5. 1 Down, Expected at a certain time (3), ends in the E of EARLY: DUE.
6. 4 Across, Previously owned (4), now reads U, ?, E, D from DUE, MERRY and IDLE: USED.
7. 5 Down, A secure box for valuables (4), starts with the S of USED and has the A of EARLY: SAFE.
8. 8 Across, Not imprisoned (4): F from SAFE, R from MERRY, E from IDLE, E from YEW. FREE.
9. 9 Across, An informal greeting (3): E from SAFE, Y from MERRY. HEY. And 2 Across, Blend together (3): M from MERRY, I from IDLE, so MIX.

The finished grid, row by row, with # for a black square:

• D # M I X
• U S E D #
• E A R L Y
• # F R E E
• H E Y # W

Look at the four corners. D, X, H and W are each in only one word: those are this grid's unchecked squares. That is why we started from the middle. EARLY, the full-width answer through the centre, crossed four other words, while the corner letters could only ever be confirmed by their own clue.

Using Check word and Reveal letter

Nibble scores 1,000 minus one point per second, with a floor of 100. Check word adds 10 seconds and tells you whether the whole selected word is right; Reveal letter adds 30 seconds and fills one square. In points, a check costs 10 and a reveal costs 30.

• If you are torn between two answers, such as MERRY and HAPPY before you have a crossing, fill one in and Check it. Ten seconds is cheaper than a long think.
• If one stubborn letter is holding up a word, reveal that square rather than staring at it for a minute.
• Unchecked squares are the best place to spend a reveal if you are truly stuck, because no crossing will ever help you there.

Quick checklist

• Read every clue once and start with the ones that have a single answer.
• Solve the long answers through the middle first: they cross the most words.
• Match word type, tense and number exactly.
• Watch for labels such as informally.
• Use the enumeration to filter, and the crossings to decide.
• Think British: spelling and vocabulary.
• Leave unchecked corner squares until last.
• A 10-second check beats a long dither between two words.

Ready for a go? Play today's Nibble, see the controls and scoring in how to play Nibble, or work through past grids in the Nibble answers archive. If you like your words with a bit more mystery, try Unquote.