These Are the 20 Most Common Crossword Answers (2024)

If there’s one universal truth about crosswords, it’s this: Puzzle constructors reuse and recycle crossword answers—and they do so often. There’s even a name for it. Answers that frequently appear in crossword puzzles are called repeaters.

“The most common crossword answers are short; they have a lot of vowels and common consonants like T, N, S, and R,” says the Puzzle Society’s lead puzzle editor, David Steinberg. “This is because every letter in an American-style crossword must be part of both an Across and a Down answer. Common letters are extra common when words intersect.”

Repeaters are an open secret within crossword clues and answers. Very often, these words are chosen for no other reason than the fact that they're short enough to fit into tight spots on the grid, and they contain just enough common letters to get the constructor out of a pickle.

“ERA”, for example, has appeared as an answer in The New York Times Crossword a whopping 1,568 times, according to XWord Info—703 of those appearances have been during the Will Shortz days alone.

That said, the clues that hint at these repeater answers get fairly eclectic. The crossword clues that have yielded ERA as an answer include:

• “Time to remember”
• “The Mughal dynasty’s reign, e.g.”
• “Big band ___ (time span after the Jazz Age)”
• “It’s a stretch”

But sometimes, even the clues are re-used. Sticking with the ERA example, we find that constructors often fall back on old standards, like:

• “Historic period”: repeated 30 times
• “Historical period”: repeated 25 times
• “Notable period”: repeated 17 times

Plus: Play The Modern Crossword—are any repeaters in today’s level?

What Are the Most Common Crossword Clue Answers?

Topping the list of the most common crossword puzzle answers (which includes mini crossword answers) we find plenty of commonly used short words full of vowels. The top 20 most common modern era crossword answers include:

1. ERA
2. AREA
3. ERE
4. ONE
5. ELI
6. ORE
7. ATE
8. ALE
9. ETA
10. ARE
11. ALI
12. OLE
13. ERR
14. ERIE
15. ODE
16. ALA
17. ALOE
18. RE
19. ACE
20. ADO EEL (tie)

Frankly, we're surprised to not see OREO on the list. It clocks in at #39.