The Million Word Crossword Answer Book (Hardcover)

by Stanley Newman (Author), Daniel Stark (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"The most comprehensive source of contemporary crossword answers—now even larger and easier to use." -- Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor

Review
"Every word you're ever likely to need is here." (--Fred Piscop, Washington Post Magazine crossword editor )

"There are over a million reasons to be ecstatic about this book." (--Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, Boston Globe and Atlantic Monthly crossword creators )

"A bonanza, the ultimate reference aid for crossword solvers. . . a must for every crossword fan." (--Maura Jacobson, New York Magazine crossword creator )

"The most comprehensive source of contemporary crossword answers-now even larger and easier to use." (Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1280 pages
• Publisher: Collins Reference (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061125903
• ISBN-13: 978-0061125904
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #370,817 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different crossword puzzle help book, April 15, 2008

By	R. Nicholson - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I've had this book about 1 month now (at the time of writing this review), and although it's NOT a crossword book I use a lot, I've found it very useful when I've come across a clue to which I can not find an answer (and end up with a partially completed word).

This book assumes you have a least two letters (in any position) of ANY 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 letter word and then proceeds to give you ALL possible combinations of words (answers) that would fit with the letters you already have.

A short illustration of how this book functions...for example, if you had a seven-letter answer with the second letter being H and the sixth letter being C, and appearing on your crossword page as *H***C*, this book will suggest the words CHALICE and PHYSICS, the proper names EHRLICH and SHYLOCK, and the phrase THIN ICE as possible answers.

To help make the book easier to use, all letter combinations are listed alphabetically; this listing method allows you to quickly find the letters you have and their positions within a word. For example, all four letter words using at least one 'A' and one 'B' would be found listed initially under AB**, then A*B*, then A**B, then *AB*, *A*B etc. until all A & B combos were exhausted. And so on with all the rest of the letters in the alphabet.

The only daunting thing about this system is that the number of possible combos for some of the potential answers can be VERY extensive. So it really helps in some cases (especially with six and seven letter words), to have more than just two letters available, as this will narrow your search down significantly. It becomes obvious that the more letters you have to start with, the smaller and easier the search required.

As you might imagine, some of the words listed as possible answers can be very unfamiliar looking. So to try to help this situation, the authors have developed a 'Glossary' (at the end of this book) that has 24,000+ words in it; words initially found in the main answer section. Each of these words, has a short definition to help explain the meaning of these 'unfamiliar answers', to help you determine if the word fits your crossword definition. Surprisingly, this section turned out to be much more useful and helpful than I thought it would be.

Only one minor concern...this book is big and heavy (1269 pages), so toting this volume around is cumbersome to say the least.

Conclusion:
This book offers the potential solution to many tough crossword clues if your regular definition dictionary is unable to do the job. The only caveat is that you do have to have at least two letters in the word that is giving you trouble; but with this minimum information this book will be a definite asset. 5 Stars.

P.S.
This book could be classified by crossword puzzle purists as unfair or even cheating in obtaining help for some clues, however, if you've reached the end of the line in some 'obscure' definition, this book will very likely be able to give you the assistance that you need.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Crossword Dictionary, October 18, 2007

By	Judith Koehl "gemini" (Mattituck, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This was not the type of dictionary I thought it would be. I like definitions. And it is very time consuming to use. However, it does come in handy.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finding the Missing Link, October 12, 2007

By	P. Mcknight "word puzzler" (Roseburg, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Million Word Crossword Answer Book fills the 'missing links' when you can't find the word you are looking for! It works hand in hand with the Million Word Crossword Dictionary and is a winning combination. Wish I'd had this long ago especially where it comes to movies and that type of info. It really is good!!!