Lettercross
Lettercross is a crossword tile game you can open and start playing. You get eight letters. You put a word wherever you want it. So does the next one, and the one after that, and the only thing the board asks is that everything a new word touches still reads as a word.
- Free
- No ads
- No account
- No download
- Works offline
- Single player
How do you play?
- Tap a letter, then tap a square - Pick a tile from your rack. Tap where you want it. Tap it again to take it back. Nothing is dragged, so it works the same on a phone, a tablet and a laptop.
- Put it anywhere - There is no starting square and nothing you build has to touch what is already down. A word lies in one line, has no holes in it, and is a word. That is the whole of it.
- Press play when you are happy - The board checks every word your tiles made, including the ones going the other way. If something is not a word, the tiles stay where they are and it tells you why.
About this game
The board is nine squares by nine. That is smaller than the board you are probably picturing, and it changes the game more than it sounds like it would. The edges arrive quickly. Every square is the same square, so where a word goes is your decision and never the board's, and a game finishes in the time you actually have rather than the time a board game assumes you have on a Sunday afternoon.
There are 94 tiles. Ninety of them are letters and four of them are wilds, which is twice the usual two. A wild can be any letter you like. It scores nothing at all, and it is still usually the best tile in your hand, because the letter you are missing is the one stopping the word you can already see.
Words go across or down. Two letters is enough.
When you place tiles next to letters that are already on the board, every new run of two or more has to be a real word too. That is the part that catches people out, and it is also the part that makes the game worth playing rather than merely finishing.
Scoring is letters, and nothing but letters. A Q is worth 12 points and an E is worth one. No square doubles anything, no square multiplies a word, and there is no lucky corner. A weak word stays weak wherever you put it.
The dictionary holds 28,515 words. It is built from a public-domain word list and then filtered, and the filtering is deliberate: obscure two-letter words that only exist in tournament play are not in it. If a word feels like it should count, it probably does.
What does it teach?
Spelling you actually use
Not spelling drills. You are hunting for a word that fits a shape, which is a different mental move from being asked to spell something, and it sticks better.
Arithmetic without a worksheet
Adding up a word with a doubled letter and a tripled word is real mental arithmetic that nobody experiences as maths homework.
Planning a turn ahead
The best square on the board is often one you should not open up. Noticing that is strategy, and children pick it up faster than adults expect.
Tips
Save the wild
It is tempting to spend a wild the moment it arrives. Hold it. The turn where you have every letter but one comes around often, and that is the turn a wild is worth the most.
Two-letter words are the whole trick
Sliding a word alongside an existing one scores every pair it makes, all at once. A five-letter word laid parallel to another can score six words in one turn.
Where you open is a real decision
Nothing pushes the first word into the middle. Near an edge keeps the board open and the crossings few. In the middle you get four directions to grow in and less room in each of them.
What age is it for?
Eight and up on their own
A confident reader can play this alone. The easy level hands out nine tiles instead of eight, which means more choices and fewer stuck turns.
Younger, alongside somebody
A five-year-old will not play this by themselves, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Sitting beside an adult and finding three-letter words together is a genuinely good time for both of them.
Adults, without apology
This is not a children's game with an adult mode bolted on. The hard level deals seven tiles instead of eight, which is genuinely harder, and the 9 by 9 board rewards somebody who can see two turns ahead.
Accessibility
Every tile is a button, reachable by keyboard and readable by a screen reader. Nothing requires a drag or a hold. The board is pinned left to right even when the rest of the site is in Hebrew, so the words never come out backwards.
Playing together
Pass the phone
Take alternate turns on one device and add your scores separately on paper. The game does not enforce it, which means you can bend the rules for a younger player without arguing with the software.
Ask before you refuse
When the board rejects a word, look it up together rather than moving on. That is the moment somebody learns a word, and it is the only moment the game creates on purpose.
Play the shape, not the score
Try a round where the only aim is the longest single word anybody manages. It gives a weaker player something to win at while a stronger one is still chasing points.
Common questions
Is Lettercross free?
Yes. No account, no advertising, nothing to buy. It saves your best score on your own device and sends nothing anywhere.
Can I play without the internet?
Yes. Once the page has loaded once, it keeps working offline.
How many words does it know?
28,515, from two letters up to six. They come from a public-domain word list, filtered so the game does not accept words nobody has heard of and does not accept words no child should be shown.
Why is the board nine squares and not fifteen?
Because a shorter game is a game people finish. Nine also keeps every square big enough to tap accurately with a thumb, which fifteen squares across a phone is not.
What is a wild worth?
Nothing. It scores zero points wherever you put it. It is worth playing anyway, because it lets you finish a word that would otherwise be impossible.
Does it keep my score?
Each of the three levels keeps its own best score, because a hand of seven tiles and a hand of nine are not the same game. It is stored on your device and never leaves it.