Free crossword puzzles are available to users of the internet or, for a small fee, you can choose to belong to one of the many online puzzle clubs. The advantage of free crossword puzzles are that you can work on a different subject every day and try different levels of difficulty, to find that perfect challenge. There are educational crosswords, such as language games or science puzzles; mystery puzzles, such as private eye or clue games; or crosswords based on history facts. Themed puzzles are also popular, such as games with pets or automobiles as a theme. Puzzles based on geography have traditionally had great appeal to a wide variety of users.

Anyone working on free crossword puzzles wants to make sure they have a good dictionary and thesaurus on hand. The internet has several basic language dictionaries (with search features) including over 300,000 possible words and phrases. Our "Free Crossword Puzzles Resources" section suggests sources you will find handy, such as Word Web and Merriam-Webster. These are free but you can also purchase more extensive help with software programs that cover American, British, Australian and Canadian spellings and boast databases indexing over a million different entries, which make solving your free crossword puzzles a snap.