Hard Printable Crosswords

Press New puzzle for a hard criss-cross crossword of 20 straight-fact clues, then Print it with its answer key.

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Hard Crossword

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Answer key: Hard Crossword

1GL2ACIER3BN4HAVANA5MLG6E7MULRQO8PROTONAUN9FAT10COMPASS11ATLASOTOBMOO12LAVAE13LARYNXE14M15OATEDG16TE17RHINEON18CANYONR

Across 1 GLACIER · 4 HAVANA · 8 PROTON · 10 COMPASS · 11 ATLAS · 12 LAVA · 13 LARYNX · 14 MOAT · 17 RHINE · 18 CANYON

Down 2 ANAGRAM · 3 BALLOT · 5 MURAL · 6 EQUATOR · 7 MONSOON · 9 FABLE · 10 COMET · 13 LEGION · 15 ODE · 16 TENOR

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All 155 clues

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Medium-Hard Warm-Up 33

  • Anagram Word made by rearranging the letters of another
  • Atlas Collection of maps bound as a book
  • Ballot Paper or device used to cast a vote
  • Canyon Deep cleft between cliffs, often cut by a river
  • Comet Icy body that grows a tail as it nears the Sun
  • Compass Instrument with a magnetized needle that points to magnetic north
  • Cornea Clear front part of the eye, over the iris and the pupil
  • Equator Imaginary line at latitude zero
  • Fable Short story with a moral, often told with animals that speak
  • Fossil Preserved remains or trace of a thing that lived in a past geological age
  • Glacier Body of ice that keeps moving under its own weight
  • Havana Cuba's capital and biggest city
  • Kyoto City that was the capital of Japan for more than a thousand years, from 794
  • Lagoon Shallow water cut off from the sea by a reef or a sandbar
  • Larynx The voice box, which holds the vocal cords
  • Lava Molten rock that has reached the surface
  • Legion Biggest unit in ancient Rome's army
  • Moat Deep, wide ditch dug around a castle
  • Monsoon Seasonal shift of winds that brings heavy rain to South Asia
  • Mural Artwork painted straight onto a wall or ceiling
  • Oasis Fertile spot in a desert
  • Ode Lyric poem that praises a person, an event or a thing
  • Orbit Curved path of a planet around its star
  • Pollen Powder that carries the male cells of a seed plant
  • Proton Positively charged particle inside an atom's nucleus
  • Rhine River that rises in the Swiss Alps and reaches the North Sea in the Netherlands
  • Sphinx Creature of myth with a human head and the body of a lion
  • Suez Canal opened in 1869 linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean
  • Tenor Male singing voice between countertenor and baritone
  • Tibia Shinbone, the larger of the two bones of the lower leg
  • Viola String instrument a little larger than a violin and tuned a fifth lower
  • Volga Longest river in Europe, which flows to the Caspian Sea
  • Zenith Point in the sky directly overhead

Science 25

  • Catalyst Substance that speeds up a reaction without being used up
  • Enzyme Protein that speeds up a chemical reaction in a living thing
  • Fulcrum Point on which a lever turns
  • Granite Coarse-grained rock that forms when magma cools slowly underground
  • Halogen Element of group 17, such as fluorine, chlorine or iodine
  • Igneous Rock type formed when molten rock cools and hardens
  • Inertia Tendency of an object to keep its state of rest or motion
  • Isotope One of two or more forms of an element that differ in mass number
  • Kelvin SI base unit of temperature, with zero at absolute zero
  • Lichen Partnership of a fungus with algae or cyanobacteria
  • Mantle Layer of the Earth under the crust and above the outer core
  • Mitosis Cell division that gives two nuclei with the same chromosomes
  • Nebula Interstellar cloud of dust and gas
  • Neutron Particle with no charge, found in 1932 by James Chadwick
  • Osmosis Movement of water through a selectively permeable membrane
  • Ozone Form of oxygen with three atoms in each molecule
  • Phloem Plant tissue that carries sugars made by photosynthesis
  • Plasma State of matter made of ions and free electrons
  • Pulsar Fast-spinning collapsed star that sends out beams of radiation
  • Quartz Hard mineral made of silica
  • Quasar Very bright galactic core powered by a supermassive black hole
  • Ribosome Cell structure where proteins are built
  • Synapse Junction where a nerve cell passes a signal to another cell
  • Tundra Biome where cold and a short growing season stop trees from growing
  • Xylem Plant tissue that carries water up from the roots

Geography 25

  • Andorra Small country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain
  • Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that has largely dried up
  • Atacama High desert along the Pacific shore of northern Chile
  • Atoll Ring-shaped island with a coral rim
  • Baikal Siberian lake, the deepest in the world
  • Bhutan Himalayan kingdom whose capital is Thimphu
  • Estuary Partly enclosed coastal water where a river meets the sea
  • Fjord Long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides, cut by a river of ice
  • Gobi Desert in northern China and southern Mongolia
  • Isthmus Narrow strip of land that joins two larger land areas
  • Lesotho Kingdom surrounded on all sides by South Africa
  • Malta Island country south of Sicily, with its capital at Valletta
  • Mekong River that runs from the Tibetan Plateau to a delta in Vietnam
  • Namib Coastal desert of southern Africa
  • Pampas Fertile low grasslands of Argentina and Uruguay
  • Steppe Grassland plain without closed forest
  • Suriname Smallest country in South America, where Dutch is the official language
  • Tasmania Island state of Australia, south of the mainland across Bass Strait
  • Tigris River that joins the Euphrates and becomes the Shatt al-Arab
  • Timbuktu City in Mali north of the Niger River
  • Titicaca Andean lake shared by Bolivia and Peru
  • Urals Mountain range that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia
  • Yukon Canadian territory whose capital is Whitehorse
  • Zagros Mountain range across Iran, southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq
  • Zambezi African river that drops over Victoria Falls

Arts and Letters 25

  • Allegory Story in which characters and events stand for a hidden meaning
  • Anthology Collection of works chosen by a compiler
  • Aria Piece for one voice in an opera
  • Ballad Verse that tells a story, often set to music
  • Baroque Ornate European style of the 17th and early 18th centuries
  • Canto Main division of a long poem
  • Cello Bowed instrument that often plays the bass part in a string quartet
  • Collage Artwork made by sticking paper, cloth or photographs onto a surface
  • Couplet Pair of lines of verse, usually rhyming
  • Elegy Poem of serious reflection, often a lament for the dead
  • Epilogue Closing piece at the end of a book or play
  • Etching Printmaking method that uses acid to cut lines into metal
  • Fugue Piece in which each voice in turn takes up a short theme
  • Gothic Medieval building style with pointed arches and flying buttresses
  • Loom Device for weaving cloth
  • Memoir Nonfiction account built on the author's own memories
  • Oboe Double-reed woodwind instrument
  • Octave Interval between a pitch and another with twice its frequency
  • Parody Work that imitates another in order to make fun of it
  • Pastel Drawing stick made of a binder and powdered pigment
  • Quatrain Stanza of four lines
  • Sonata Piece in three or four movements for one or a few instruments
  • Tempera Fast-drying paint bound with egg yolk
  • Timpani Kettledrums of the orchestra
  • Trilogy Set of three connected works

History 25

  • Abacus Counting frame used for arithmetic since ancient times
  • Aqueduct Channel the Romans built to bring water into a city
  • Armada Fleet that Spain sent against England in 1588
  • Aztec Empire whose capital Tenochtitlan stood where Mexico City is now
  • Caravel Small sailing ship of the 15th century, used by Portuguese explorers
  • Carthage North African city that fought Rome in the Punic Wars
  • Consul One of the two highest elected officials of the Roman Republic
  • Dynasty Line of rulers from one family
  • Hoplite Citizen foot soldier of an ancient Greek city-state
  • Inca Empire of the Andes with its capital at Cusco
  • Longship Long, narrow Viking ship driven by oars and a sail
  • Mughal Empire founded in 1526 that ruled much of South Asia
  • Ottoman Empire that took Constantinople in 1453
  • Papyrus Writing material of ancient Egypt, made from the pith of a reed-like plant
  • Pompeii Roman city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79
  • Rosetta Stone whose decree in three scripts unlocked the writing of ancient Egypt
  • Samurai Member of the warrior class of Japan
  • Serf Peasant bound to a lord's land in medieval Europe
  • Shogun Military ruler of Japan between 1185 and 1868
  • Sparta Greek city-state that led the Peloponnesian League
  • Sumer Earliest known civilization, in the south of what is now Iraq
  • Toga Draped woolen garment of a citizen of ancient Rome
  • Trireme Ancient warship with three banks of oars
  • Tudor Royal house that ruled England from 1485 to 1603
  • Ziggurat Massive terraced temple tower built by the Babylonians and their neighbors

Long Answers 22

  • Alliteration Repeating of the same first sound in nearby words
  • Archipelago Chain or cluster of islands
  • Byzantium Greek city later known as Constantinople
  • Chiaroscuro Strong contrast between light and dark in a picture
  • Colosseum Oval amphitheater in the center of Rome
  • Cuneiform Writing made of wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay
  • Feudalism Medieval system in which land was held in return for service
  • Hieroglyph Character of the formal writing system of ancient Egypt
  • Hypotenuse Side of a right triangle opposite the right angle
  • Kilimanjaro Dormant volcano in Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa
  • Madagascar Island country off the southeast coast of Africa
  • Marsupial Mammal such as a kangaroo or a koala, whose young are carried in a pouch
  • Mayflower Ship that carried the Pilgrims to North America in 1620
  • Mesopotamia Historical region whose Greek name means between rivers
  • Metamorphic Rock type made when existing rock is changed by heat and pressure
  • Neolithic The New Stone Age
  • Onomatopoeia Word that imitates the sound it names
  • Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis of Athens, dedicated to the goddess Athena
  • Peninsula Land mostly surrounded by water and joined to a mainland
  • Soliloquy Speech in which a character alone speaks their thoughts aloud
  • Stalactite Mineral growth hanging from the roof of a cave
  • Stratosphere Atmosphere layer lying over the troposphere

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this page: each states one plain fact, checked against the English Wikipedia article for its answer in October 2026. Where an article and a common saying differ, the clue follows the article. No living person, brand, film, song or team is used, nothing that changes from year to year, and no cryptic wordplay. Licence: own work

How it works

These hard printable crosswords put 20 answers in a grid, clued by plain facts: an element of group 17, a mountain range of Iran, a stanza of four lines. Nothing is cryptic, and nothing needs this year's news.

Read the full guide

Six sets, from medium-hard up

Medium-Hard Warm-Up, the opening set, has short answers such as Tibia, Zenith and Kyoto. Science, Geography, Arts and Letters and History each go a step past general knowledge: Phloem, Lesotho, Tempera, Trireme. Long Answers holds words of 9 to 12 letters, from Byzantium to Onomatopoeia, in a wider grid.

Print with the key last

Press New puzzle for another grid from the same set. Print gives Letter or A4. The answer key prints last, and the line beside Print gives the page count.

  • For medium hard crossword puzzles, printable as they are, stay on Medium-Hard Warm-Up and turn on Word bank under the clues in More options.

Questions and answers

How hard are these crosswords?

Harder than the general knowledge crossword for adults on this site, and nothing like a cryptic. Each clue is one plain fact. The difficulty is in the answers: Ziggurat, Phloem, Suriname, Quatrain.

Is this the world's hardest crossword puzzle, printable at home?

No. It is a criss-cross puzzle of straight facts with an answer key. For the hardest sheet this page makes, choose Long Answers and leave the word bank off.

Are the clues cryptic?

No. None uses wordplay, an anagram or a hidden word. Each states a fact that was checked against an encyclopedia article, and no clue names a living person, a brand, a film or a team.

Can I print hard crosswords free, with the answers?

Yes. Printing is free with no sign-up, and every print ends with the answer key on a sheet of its own. Show all clues and answers, under the puzzle, lists the whole bank.

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