According to a study published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, “Participation in cognitively stimulating leisure activities such as crossword puzzles may delay onset of the memory decline in the preclinical stages of dementia, possibly via its effect on improving cognitive reserve.” Crossword puzzles keep your brain sharp, improve memory, and slow down the decline associated with dementia. Sounds like a win-win! You don’t have to be a crossword puzzle guru, either. Just doing one crossword a week feeds your brain the stimulation it needs to improve function and memory in the long-term. Not sure where to find one? Check out these 20 best online crossword puzzles to get started.
1. New York Magazine Sunday Night Crossword
Certainly one of the most iconic crosswords in history, you don’t need a subscription to New York Magazine in order to play its weekly puzzle. All of Matt Gaffney’s crossword puzzles are available to solve online for free at New York Mag online, so you can retroactively play. Or, you can hop on the website every Sunday night when a new weekly puzzle is posted.
2. The Atlantic Daily Online Crossword
The Atlantic offers a free daily online crossword puzzle that can be accessed online. But, there’s an age-old twist. Each day of the week, the crosswords grow increasingly difficult. By the time it gets to Sunday, The Atlantic’s online daily crossword is for the experts only. Of course, the more you do, the quicker you’ll work your way to expert level.
3. The New York Times Crossword
You don’t need a subscription to The New York Times itself, but a New York Times’ crossword subscription will gain you access to more than 1,000 crossword puzzles, plus other logic puzzles that stimulate your brain. The only crossword on this list that isn’t totally free, you can opt to pay 81¢/wk. for a monthly or 38¢/wk. for a yearly subscription.
4. The Washington Post Daily Crossword
Up for the daily challenge? You can take your aim at solving The Washington Post’s daily crossword online for free at Washington Post. Made by editor Rich Norris, you can either print out the puzzle if you prefer to play the old fashion way a la pen and paper or you can play digitally, while the website’s puzzle timer runs in the background.
5. USA Today Crossword Puzzles
Free—albeit thanks to ads—USA Today gives players the option of choosing a “beginner” level or “expert” level puzzle for the daily. USA Today’s daily crosswords are also available on their app for iOS and Android, if you prefer to play on your smartphone. The app comes with a 7-day free trial, then requires a subscription.
6. The Guardian Cryptic Crosswords
Cryptic is The Guardian’s daily online crossword puzzle series that is posted every weekday. Not only can you access today’s daily puzzle, but you can also take a look back in their crossword puzzle archives to play retroactively. You know what they say, practice makes for perfect puzzles!
7. The Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
The LA Times also publishes a daily crossword puzzle that’s free online. You can also access The LA Times puzzle archives for free, so you can choose from playing today’s daily or working your way through the previous puzzles.
8. Independent.co Crosswords
You’ll need to turn off your ad blocker for this one, but Independent.co publishes a daily crossword puzzle that is also free of charge (if you don’t count succumbing to ads). You can also choose from other similar brain games on their site like The Independent’s Concise Crossword, Penny Dell Crosswords, The Independent’s Codeword, and Word Wipe.
9. AARP Crossword
The daily crossword puzzle from AARP is totally free, but there are some fun benefits to making a free account (rather than simply playing as a guest). With an account, you can keep track of your progress as the website will store your information and scores. For anyone looking to up their own crossword game or to get competitive with others (AARP actually has a public ranking system so you can see where your score stands versus others who play), the AARP daily is a fun one.
10. Arkadium Themed Crosswords
Arkadium is an online resource for all things games. From educational games to strategy puzzles, there’s a whole lot of brain-exercising you can do here on this website. With crossword puzzle updates occurring every day, Arkadium features different categories of crosswords—from the mini to the commuter puzzle to themed puzzles.
11. Spellbound by Lovatts Crosswords & Puzzles
Improving brain function and memory isn’t just for adults. Kids can get in on the fun (and the brain benefits), too! Spellbound by Lovatts Crosswords & Puzzles is a kid-friendly crossword that children can work through on their tablet or smartphone. The website also features online puzzles for children like word searches, suduko, and quadra.
12. Free Daily Crossword From Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is no longer just for defining words you don’t know the meanings of. The website’s free daily crossword helps you widen your vocabulary, improve language skills, and even provides trivia about the history of word games.
13. Merriam-Webster Universal Daily Crossword
In the same vein of Dictionary.com’s free daily crossword, Merriam-Webster also offers a universal daily crossword. While you work your way through solving the universal daily crossword, Merriam-Webster will also give you a word of the day and a synonym quiz that will help you brush up on your SAT-level vocab.
14. BestCrosswords.com
The website BestCrosswords.com features interactive crosswords, themed crosswords made by contributors, and even offers a monthly crossword tournament for expert-level players who can’t get enough word games.
15. Rockwell Museum Crossword Puzzles
The Rockwell Museum—a Smithsonian affiliate museum located in Corning, New York—provides free online crossword puzzles for kids. In their website’s section “Museum From Home,” you will find the Rockwell Museum’s collection called eMuseum. These collection-inspired crosswords are themed, including COLLECTION CROSSWORD: WOMEN ARTISTS, COLLECTION CROSSWORD: MODERN GALLERY, and COLLECTION CROSSWORD: HAUDENOSAUNEE GALLERY.
16. Crossword Puzzle Free
Prefer an app? The Crossword Puzzle Free is a free smartphone app that, yes, contains in-app ads, but can also be accessed across all devices. So, if you open a crossword on your phone, but then want to finish it later on your tablet, you can open it on your tablet without losing your progress.
17. The New Daily Quiz Crossword
The New Daily’s daily quiz crossword challenges players to get their daily crossword fix every day of the week. If you’re looking for more games in addition to a daily crossword, The New Daily also offers online sudoku and trivia for your brain-teasing pleasure.
18. Mind Food Daily Online Puzzle
Mind Food’s daily online puzzle asks players to exercise #SmartThinking. In addition to providing interesting background on the history of crosswords—as in, did you know that the first one was published in 1913and was called a “word-cross” puzzle? Mind Food also features similar brain games like code-cracker, sudoku, and word searches.
19. Daily Crossword Puzzle From Vox
Not just a publisher of editorial content, Vox also has a daily online crossword puzzle for readers. Their crossword feature is relatively new, so Vox accepts feedback and puzzle ideas. According to their website, they want to know if their puzzles are too easy, too hard, or if you, a regular player, have a puzzle concept you want to share. If that sounds like you, email your ideas and feedback to crosswords@vox.com.
20. Boatload Puzzles
Boatload Puzzles is a trove of daily online crossword puzzles for the frequent player, but what makes them stand out is that you can also embed Boatload’s puzzles on your own website. Have you played Parade’sNumbrix yet? Catch up here!
