Cruciverbalist

Cruciverbalist is a freeware/shareware crossword program for the classic MacOS by Frederick Groth (pmgroth@hal-pc.org). This is the 68k release, with a companion PowerPC native version available. It handles solving, generating, and customizing puzzles, and ships with a word list of nearly 80,000 entries.

Solve published puzzles

Cruciverbalist works with its own puzzles plus crosswords published on the internet by The New York Times, USA Today, and others. Solvers can use the program's possible-word lookup to study how clues map to answers and improve over time.

Build your own crosswords

The program generates custom layouts for puzzles you solve or want to create, and helps construct newspaper-quality crosswords from scratch. Authors can shape grids, fill from word lists, and iterate on clues inside the same tool.

Word list management

The bundled list contains almost 80,000 words, names, and phrases. Users can add and delete entries to tailor the dictionary to their preferred vocabulary, theme, or difficulty level, with several sample puzzles included to get started.

Requirements and platforms

Cruciverbalist requires System 7 and a Mac Plus or later CPU. Both 68K and PowerPC native versions ship from the same author. Documentation covers solving, fetching internet puzzles, list maintenance, puzzle creation, and customization.