Pocket Crossword A free daily 5×5 mini crossword
A fresh 5×5 mini crossword every day that you can solve in about a minute. Race the ghost of your best time, crack the pun title and keep your streak alive.
About Pocket Crossword
Pocket Crossword is a free daily mini crossword you can play in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Every day at midnight UTC a new five-by-five grid appears, the same puzzle for everyone, with about ten friendly clues. Most players finish in one to three minutes, which makes it the perfect coffee-break puzzle, bus-stop puzzle or warm-up before work.
Every puzzle has a pun title that hints at one of its answers. "Udder Nonsense" might be hiding a farm animal, and "Heavy Mettle" something you would find in a forge. When you fill in the last square correctly, the grid ripples, confetti flies, and the theme answer glows gold so you can see the joke land.
The twist is the ghost. Your fastest clean solve is recorded square by square, and next time a ghost marker races you along the bar under the timer. It shows how much of the grid you had filled at the same second in your best run, never which letters are right, so you can push for a new record without any spoilers.
Stuck on a square? Hint coins let you check a square, a word or the whole grid, or reveal a letter or a word. You start with twelve coins and earn more with every solve, with a bonus for clean solves and new records. If you would rather learn as you go, switch on auto-check and wrong letters turn red as you type; those solves just don't count toward your best time or the leaderboard.
The clues are written for everyday solvers: plain meanings, no obscure crossword-only words, and no trivia about celebrities or brands. Every answer comes from a list of common English words with a family-friendly filter, and every grid is symmetric and fully checked, so each square belongs to an across word and a down word.
Missed a day? The archive keeps every past daily puzzle, each with its title, your time and its status, so you can catch up whenever you like. Solve today's puzzle on consecutive days to grow your streak, and collect achievements such as Minute Mini for a clean solve under sixty seconds.
Pocket Crossword works with touch, mouse and keyboard. On a phone the built-in keyboard sits under the grid so it never covers the clues; on a computer just type, use the arrow keys to move and Tab to jump to the next clue. Your progress, coins, streak and best time are saved on this device, and to your account when you are signed in.
How to play
Tap a square to select it and read its clue in the bar under the grid. Type the answer with the on-screen keyboard or your physical keyboard; letters move forward through the word and then on to the next open clue. Tap the selected square again (or the clue bar, or press Space) to switch between across and down. Use ‹ and › in the clue bar, Tab and Shift+Tab, or Enter to jump between clues, and the arrow keys to move square by square. Backspace deletes and steps back. Check and Reveal cost hint coins and work on the current square, word or the whole puzzle. Fill every square correctly to finish.
Controls and devices
- Controls: Touch, Mouse, Keyboard
- Works on: phones, tablets and computers
- Screen: portrait orientation
- Price: free, no download or sign-up
FAQ
- Is Pocket Crossword free, and does it work on my phone?
- Yes. It is free and runs in the browser on Android phones, iPhones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download.
- When does the daily puzzle change?
- At midnight UTC. Everyone in the world gets the same mini crossword on the same date.
- How hard are the clues?
- Easy to medium, like an early-week newspaper mini. Answers are common English words of three to five letters, and the clues use everyday meanings rather than trivia.
- What is the ghost?
- A replay of your fastest clean solve. The marker on the bar under the timer shows how much of the grid you had filled at the same moment in your best run, so you can see whether you are ahead or behind.
- How do I get more hint coins?
- Every solve earns 3 coins, plus 2 if you used no help and 1 more for a new best time. When you are almost out, you can also watch a short ad for 5 coins.
- Can I play puzzles I missed?
- Yes. Open the archive from the home screen to play any earlier daily puzzle. Archive solves count toward your stats and achievements but not your daily streak.
- Is my progress saved?
- Yes. Puzzles in progress, your coins, streak, best time and achievements are saved on this device, and to your account when you are signed in.
Credits
- Game design, code, puzzles, clues and sound: Playora Games
- Source word list for the puzzle fill (build time only): SCOWL (Spell Checker Oriented Word Lists) by Kevin Atkinson, via wordlist-english (MIT-like SCOWL license)