4-Square

This small puzzle can be quite tricky. The clues tend to be deliberately ambiguous, forcing the solver to consider possible words that can be formed along the diagonals. The second part of the puzzle can also be challenging, both for the solver and the compiler, as there are a limited number of familiar 16-letter phrases.

There are several versions of this four-by-four puzzle. A simpler variant reduces the level of difficulty by omitting the final anagram. In another version, clues are removed, the first Across and Down words are pre-placed in the grid, and the rest of the letters are supplied – in this case, the objective is simply to place the given letters in the grid to spell four words in each direction. At this point, the puzzle has changed from a type of crossword to a type of fitword.

The most basic version, perhaps, provides five four-letter words and an empty 4x4 grid. Here, the objective is to place four words across so that four more words read downwards – the fifth four-letter word supplied makes this slightly more challenging.