Reference

The 200 Most Common Crossword Answers

The answers American crossword grids repeat most, ranked by how often they have appeared since 2000, each with the clue wording it gets more than any other.

8,006,563 answers counted 46 publications 196 of 200 are 3 or 4 letters 35 are not dictionary words

The 200 most common crossword answers since 2000, with usage counts, the most repeated clue for each, and each answer's rank in ordinary English.
#	Answer	Uses since 2000	Most repeated clue	Rank in English
1	ERA	5,735	Historical period	4,679
2	AREA	5,501	Vicinity	854
3	ERIE name	4,527	One of the Great Lakes	33,389
4	ORE	4,429	Mine find	13,261
5	ALOE	4,356	Lotion ingredient	34,157
6	ARIA	4,187	Opera solo	12,012
7	ONE	4,141	Small bill	50
8	ALE	4,120	Pub order	9,058
9	ATE	4,044	Consumed	1,889
10	ERE	4,024	Poetic preposition	10,312
11	ELSE	3,841	Otherwise	232
12	ARE	3,793	Exist	25
13	OREO name	3,762	Black-and-white cookie	41,763
14	ETA	3,742	Greek vowel	12,257
15	ERR	3,723	Make a mistake	11,072
16	ALI name	3,625	__ Baba	3,097
17	ELI name	3,608	Inventor Whitney	4,473
18	ALA	3,568	In the style of	29,517
19	SPA	3,525	Health resort	6,970
20	ANTE	3,503	Pay to play	16,207
21	EDEN name	3,474	Biblical garden	7,866
22	IDEA	3,457	Notion	283
23	ODE	3,453	Poem of praise	26,652
24	EAR	3,410	Corn unit	2,200
25	IRE	3,385	Anger	39,304
26	IRA name	3,359	Lyricist Gershwin	7,780
27	OLE	3,240	Corrida cheer	9,982
28	ORAL	3,181	Spoken	9,843
29	ASH	3,180	Bat wood	4,328
30	ADO	3,164	Fuss	16,859
31	SEE	3,154	"Get it?"	61
32	ACE	3,091	Expert	4,436
33	ASIA name	3,061	Largest continent	5,778
34	ODOR	3,052	Aroma	15,330
35	END	3,044	Wrap up	321
36	EEL	3,031	Snakelike fish	13,404
37	EGO	2,966	Sense of self	5,458
38	ANTI	2,920	Opposed to	19,140
39	ESS	2,854	Double curve	37,054
40	EAT	2,825	"Dig in!"	363
41	TEE	2,805	Golf peg	10,864
42	TEA	2,770	Coffee alternative	909
43	APE	2,763	Mimic	7,421
44	ANT	2,758	Picnic pest	7,367
45	SEA	2,742	Neptune's realm	883
46	ERAS	2,683	Historical periods	38,914
47	ASS	2,680	Beast of burden	588
48	EASE	2,679	Facility	3,216
49	AGE	2,671	Ripen	739
50	ISLE	2,667	Castaway's home	12,200
51	ART	2,656	Gallery display	977
52	ACRE	2,646	Land measure	15,999
53	EST	2,645	Superlative suffix	9,051
54	ARENA	2,624	Sports venue	7,512
55	ENE	2,614	U-turn from WSW	not ranked
56	OBOE	2,596	Woodwind instrument	29,713
57	SET	2,575	Complete collection	429
58	ALAS	2,571	"Woe is me!"	7,287
59	EPEE	2,518	Fencing sword	not ranked
60	NET	2,518	Court divider	3,820
61	STAR	2,514	Headliner	882
62	OSLO name	2,506	Norway's capital	17,074
63	AMEN	2,504	"You said it!"	2,450
64	IDOL	2,496	Object of worship	5,008
65	NEE	2,488	Born	27,233
66	TREE	2,470	Genealogy chart	1,050
67	EVE	2,466	Night before	2,350
68	AHA	2,465	"Eureka!"	5,146
69	YES	2,456	"Absolutely!"	69
70	ICE	2,454	Curling surface	932
71	ECHO	2,452	Reverberate	5,783
72	SHE	2,437	That woman	39
73	ONO	2,420	Lennon's love	19,389
74	TAR	2,413	Paving material	11,267
75	STY	2,407	Pigpen	30,500
76	USE	2,406	Take advantage of	300
77	ETAL abbr.	2,392	List-ending abbr.	not ranked
78	ENDS	2,385	Concludes	1,667
79	IRON	2,371	Press	2,178
80	ERASE	2,367	Wipe clean	6,377
81	AGO	2,364	In the past	332
82	TEN	2,360	Half a score	605
83	ADS	2,352	Commercials	8,612
84	ETNA	2,351	Sicilian volcano	not ranked
85	EDIT	2,348	Revise	11,827
86	EERIE	2,335	Spooky	8,256
87	OAR	2,297	Paddle	21,230
88	ACHE	2,296	Feel sore	9,624
89	ALTO	2,293	Choir voice	21,267
90	LEE	2,290	Director Spike	1,313
91	EMU	2,282	Big bird	37,605
92	ANA	2,264	Santa ___ winds	5,311
93	ESE suffix	2,240	Language suffix	18,224
94	ONES	2,235	Small bills	704
95	ISEE phrase	2,229	"Gotcha"	not ranked
96	LEI	2,209	Hawaiian garland	13,315
97	ARI name	2,200	"Exodus" hero	7,247
98	EON	2,187	Long, long time	not ranked
99	TNT abbr.	2,180	Explosive initials	23,617
100	LIE	2,178	Whopper	625
101	OGRE	2,177	Shrek, for one	14,262
102	EDGE	2,165	Advantage	2,242
103	ASEA	2,164	On the briny	not ranked
104	ONCE	2,163	A single time	278
105	IDLE	2,157	Doing nothing	8,793
106	NOR	2,156	Neither's partner	1,417
107	IRAN name	2,151	Persia, today	7,943
108	ANNE name	2,149	Green Gables girl	2,605
109	ALL	2,145	100%	31
110	IDO phrase	2,141	Wedding words	43,247
111	TSAR	2,137	Romanov ruler	12,654
112	ASAP abbr.	2,121	PDQ	8,920
113	ROE	2,118	Fish eggs	19,000
114	STIR	2,094	Commotion	6,598
115	ITEM	2,080	Tabloid twosome	4,056
116	PSST	2,049	"Hey, you!"	8,145
117	AIR	2,043	Broadcast	604
118	NEO prefix	2,031	Opposite of paleo-	22,710
119	ALSO	2,025	In addition	291
120	RED	2,019	Roulette bet	580
121	ALOT phrase	2,016	Oodles	19,275
122	ESP abbr.	2,015	Sixth sense, for short	26,012
123	EROS	2,010	Love god	21,467
124	REST	2,010	Take a break	443
125	SIR	2,005	Knight's title	139
126	IOTA	2,002	Smidgen	32,412
127	RIO name	1,992	Carnival city	6,293
128	ATOM	1,989	Molecule part	9,153
129	EVER	1,987	At any time	181
130	NEST	1,987	Hatchling's home	4,119
131	OPAL	1,985	October birthstone	19,792
132	USA name	1,980	Dos Passos trilogy	7,068
133	ACT	1,972	Do something	706
134	EPIC	1,969	Larger-than-life	6,735
135	INN	1,962	Quaint lodging	4,619
136	RNA abbr.	1,962	Genetic letters	40,539
137	ADAM name	1,961	Economist Smith	1,232
138	EMIT	1,961	Give off	24,714
139	LEA	1,957	Meadow	10,583
140	OPERA	1,953	Musical drama	3,726
141	SOS	1,951	Distress signal	19,718
142	EWE	1,949	Female sheep	34,649
143	AURA	1,945	Mystique	12,135
144	ALEC	1,944	Actor Baldwin	6,184
145	ANON	1,940	Shortly	31,520
146	ABE name	1,939	Presidential nickname	7,439
147	EYE	1,929	Hurricane center	695
148	INTO	1,927	Division word	133
149	AFAR	1,921	Way off	11,977
150	ARC	1,905	Rainbow shape	10,482
151	ARAB name	1,904	Part of UAE	6,878
152	TOE	1,903	Low digit	5,388
153	EAST	1,901	Sunrise direction	1,407
154	ABLE	1,900	Up to the task	468
155	EURO	1,898	Continental currency	11,042
156	ERIN name	1,891	"___ go bragh!"	5,627
157	OTTO	1,884	Director Preminger	5,832
158	UTAH name	1,880	Four Corners state	12,513
159	ONTO	1,877	Aware of	1,552
160	ENS	1,874	USNA grad	not ranked
161	RARE	1,872	Hard to find	2,388
162	EVIL	1,866	Wicked	1,005
163	ECO	1,863	Green prefix	33,399
164	TIE	1,860	Even score	1,642
165	USER	1,859	Consumer	10,426
166	ELLA name	1,855	Singer Fitzgerald	6,200
167	OLEO	1,850	Bread spread	not ranked
168	ANTS	1,848	Picnic pests	6,631
169	PER	1,847	According to	2,013
170	OAT	1,844	Cereal grain	31,267
171	OMEN	1,838	Sign of the future	11,798
172	ELAN	1,836	Panache	not ranked
173	ETC abbr.	1,833	And so on: Abbr.	7,693
174	OIL	1,831	Black gold	1,542
175	ILL	1,830	Under the weather	1,855
176	ALAN	1,828	Astronaut Shepard	1,895
177	LEO name	1,826	Sign of summer	2,151
178	IRIS	1,824	Part of the eye	6,198
179	STEP	1,806	Dance move	676
180	DNA abbr.	1,804	Genetic material	1,911
181	ENOS name	1,804	Son of Seth	31,240
182	ERRS	1,804	Makes a mistake	not ranked
183	ERIC	1,799	Guitarist Clapton	1,682
184	UNIT	1,799	Troop group	1,709
185	ANN	1,793	Raggedy doll	3,278
186	ORES	1,793	Mine finds	not ranked
187	URGE	1,792	Impulse	6,537
188	RAT	1,790	Squealer	2,099
189	ALES	1,787	Pub orders	not ranked
190	ELS	1,784	Golfer Ernie	40,349
191	ITS	1,778	Part of TGIF	391
192	ETON name	1,770	School on the Thames	29,119
193	NERO name	1,767	Infamous Roman emperor	9,501
194	AMI	1,761	French friend	12,400
195	ODES	1,761	Poems of praise	not ranked
196	EMIR	1,760	Kuwaiti ruler	17,802
197	SAT	1,760	Took a load off	2,093
198	OMIT	1,759	Leave out	34,848
199	SLED	1,752	Snow vehicle	14,997
200	KNEE	1,751	Leg joint	3,703

How this list was counted

The source is the xd corpus, an open archive of American crossword clues and answers. It holds 8,006,563 answer usages across 46 publications, from 1913 to 2026. This page counts only puzzles published in 2000 or later, because its job is to tell you what you will meet in a puzzle now - the same window the Crossword Helper ranks its suggestions on. Together these 200 answers account for 485,201 appearances.

The clue column is the exact wording repeated most often for that answer since 2000. Popular answers collect dozens of near-identical wordings, so the count behind a winning clue is often close to the runner-up: ERIE has been clued "One of the Great Lakes" and "A Great Lake" almost equally often. Read it as the typical clue, not the only one.

"Rank in English" is the answer's position in LexiLab's 46,832-word English frequency list, built from ordinary written and spoken language with no connection to puzzles. The gap between the two columns is what crosswordese is: ERIE sits third here and 33,389th in English. A badge marks an answer that is not an ordinary dictionary word - a proper noun, an abbreviation, two words run together, or a bare prefix or suffix. That test is exact, being membership in Collins CSW24, and 35 of the 200 fail it.

For why this vocabulary exists and how it has changed since the 1990s, read the analysis behind this list.