Fill-Ins, also known as Fill-It-Ins or Word Fill-Ins, are a variation of the common

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the ans ...

puzzle in which words, rather than clues, are given, and the solver must work out where to place them.Can You Use Ink?
Little Bits of History. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
BigOpolis Fill-It-In Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
YourDictionary.com. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
Atarimagazines.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011. Fill-Ins are common in puzzle magazines along with

word search A word search, word find, word seek, word sleuth or mystery word puzzle is a word game that consists of the letters of words placed in a grid, which usually has a rectangular or square shape. The objective of this puzzle is to find and mark all ...

es,

cryptogram A cryptogram is a type of puzzle that consists of a short piece of encrypted text. Generally the cipher used to encrypt the text is simple enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand. Substitution ciphers where each letter is replaced by ...

s, and other

logic puzzle A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematical field of deduction. History The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of ''Alice's Adventures in W ...

s.Advertising.
Kappa Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011. Some people consider Fill-Ins to be an easier version of the crossword.
BigOpolis Fill-It-In Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011. Since the Fill-In requires no outside knowledge of specific subjects,
Printable Mazes for Kids. Retrieved 17 April 2011. one can solve the puzzle in another language. Solving a Fill-In usually requires trial-and-error. Many times, a first word is already given to help the solver start, but some difficult puzzles require the solver to begin from scratch without any help. Word entries are listed alphabetically by number of letters.

Rules

The solver is given a grid and a list of words. To solve the puzzle correctly, the solver must find a solution that fits all of the available words into the grid.Advice on the Major Variations of Crosswords.
Educational Articles. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
puzzleFast. Retrieved 16 April 2011. Generally, these words are listed by number of letters, and further alphabetically. Many times, one word is filled in for the solver to help him or her begin the game.

Solution methods

Solving a Fill-In typically amounts to searching for words of a certain length with letters in specific places. If a starter word is given in the grid, it is often useful to use it as the beginning search point. Raw "trial and error" is best used when there are only two or three words that can potentially fit at a given location; temporarily assume one of the words, and see if an impossible letter combination results. If so, that word is not the one that should go in the grid at that location. Smaller words may be easier to fit in the grid, but longer words give more clues to connecting words.
Dummies.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011. Care must be given to marking out words that are not explicitly placed in the grid; this occurs when one fills in a vertical sequence of horizontal words, or vice versa. Forgetting to do this results in "extra words" and often makes the puzzle more difficult to solve.

Variations

A common variation on the standard Fill-In is using numbers, instead of specific words, sometimes called "cross numbers".Advice on the Major Variations of Crosswords.
Educational Articles. Retrieved 16 April 2011. In this puzzle, the entries could be listed as the number, a mathematical expression, or even an important year. A more complex variation on the Fill-In is the "diagramless" Fill-In, where the grid is initially empty. Another variation is having no words listed at all, but gathering them from a known group of words, such as the fifty

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

states.puzzleFast Frequently Asked Questions
puzzleFast. Retrieved 16 April 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fill-In (Puzzle) Word puzzles Logic puzzles Crosswords