MIT Open Learning

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Fancy yourself a cruciverbalist?

1 min readMar 13, 2025

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A person sitting down completing a crossword puzzle on a newspaper.
Photo: Pexels

By Stephen Nelson

Did you know that the very first crossword puzzle was created for the New York World publication in 1913? Today, millions of people around the world tackle the New York Times crossword puzzles daily. If you’re not familiar, they are meant to be increasingly complex as the week moves on, with Monday being the easiest puzzle and Saturday being nearly impossible to solve for mortals.

However, with the free knowledge you can gain from MIT Open Learning programs like MIT OpenCourseWare and MITx Online, you can arm yourself with some of the facts needed to become an expert cruciverbalist (14-letter word for a crossword puzzle enthusiast). So as the MIT 24-Challenge kicks off, spend a few minutes completing our simple crossword puzzle, and gear up for more complex puzzles by exploring a course on OpenCourseWare or MITx Online — perhaps quantum physics or molecular biology.

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MIT Open Learning
MIT Open Learning

Published in MIT Open Learning

News, ideas, and thought leadership on the future of learning. Discover more at openlearning.mit.edu.

MIT Open Learning
MIT Open Learning

Written by MIT Open Learning

Transforming teaching and learning at MIT and around the globe through the innovative use of digital technologies.

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