Submit Your Crossword Puzzles to The New York Times

Submissions are open.

A New York Times crossword will be a collaboration between you and our staff of editors, who will seek to preserve your voice while making the puzzle as enjoyable as possible for solvers. This page of guidelines is a living document and reflects our current best practices on crossword construction.

A summary of what we look for:

• Lively fill, with words, phrases and names that solvers know or can infer from the crossings.

• Original, on-target clues, pitched at the puzzle’s intended difficulty level, including a variety of cultural reference points.

• No more than three puzzles pending at a time.

• What we could use more of: Thursday and Sunday puzzles that don’t involve a rebus.

Submission Guidelines

Themes

Themes should be fresh, interesting, narrowly defined and consistently applied throughout the puzzle. For example, if the theme includes a particular kind of pun, then all the puns should be of that kind. Themes and theme entries should be accessible to everyone. We generally prefer puzzles with playful themes rather than straightforward subjects.

Fill

Constructors should emphasize lively words, well-known names and fresh phrases. Common words that lend themselves to interesting and imaginative cluing angles are encouraged.

Diversity in cultural references — for age, gender, ethnicity, etc. — is desired.

Avoid offensive language. Be mindful of words that might impact solvers negatively. Non-English words are allowed, so long as they are familiar or inferable to people who don’t speak the language.

Avoid uncommon abbreviations and partial phrases longer than five letters (“So ___” for BE IT would be permissible, while “So ___” for IT GOES would not.)