Crossword Master January 1, 2026 Answers
12 across and 11 down, every answer listed.
Across — 12 Clues
| # | Clue | Answer | Letters | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | added up | Show answer | 7 | |
| 7 | [picture: apple] | Show answer | 5 | |
| 9 | reply | Show answer | 2 | |
| 10 | light | Show answer | 4 | |
| 12 | craft | Show answer | 3 | |
| 13 | nothing | Show answer | 3 | |
| 15 | [picture: nail] | Show answer | 4 | |
| 16 | no idea | Show answer | 2 | |
| 18 | subject | Show answer | 5 | |
| 20 | practice | Show answer | 5 | |
| 22 | forgiving | Show answer | 7 | |
| 23 | [picture: clay] | Show answer | 4 |
Down — 11 Clues
| # | Clue | Answer | Letters | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [picture: tarantula] | Show answer | 9 | |
| 2 | musical play | Show answer | 5 | |
| 3 | township | Show answer | 2 | |
| 4 | tilt | Show answer | 4 | |
| 5 | deception | Show answer | 9 | |
| 8 | little | Show answer | 4 | |
| 11 | strong person | Show answer | 5 | |
| 14 | sense | Show answer | 5 | |
| 17 | rind | Show answer | 4 | |
| 19 | stitch | Show answer | 3 | |
| 21 | __vigate | Show answer | 2 |
January 1, 2026 — How the Grid Breaks Down
This is the Crossword Master daily puzzle for January 1, 2026, a Thursday. It is played on a 10x8 grid and holds 23 answers — 12 across and 11 down. Answers run from 2 to 9 letters, the longest being TARANTULA.
Crossword Master keeps its clues short and definitional, which makes the grid quick once you find a foothold, but it also leans on very short fills — two- and three-letter entries that are hard to guess in isolation. The reliable approach is to solve the long across answers first and let their crossing letters fix the short down entries, rather than the other way round. That is why the two directions are listed separately here.
Dated puzzles are archived separately from the game's repeating month-day dailies. The dated archive holds 251 puzzles, and the main daily hub covers the calendar set. For the numbered campaign puzzles, the Crossword Master hub indexes them all.
January 1, 2026 — Questions
What are the Crossword Master answers for January 1, 2026?
How big is this grid?
Are across and down clues listed separately?
Where are the other dates?
3 Tips for the January 1, 2026 Puzzle
Fill the long answers first
This board carries 23 clues. The longest answers cross the most squares, so each one you place hands you confirmed letters in several shorter entries — far quicker than working the clue list top to bottom.
Use the crossings when a clue will not come
Crossword Master reuses clue wording with different answers, so recall alone is unreliable. Solve the entries around a stubborn clue first; two or three crossing letters usually leave only one word that fits the slot.
The rest of the archive
next one follows. The dated index lists every board in this run, and the numbered puzzle archive covers the fixed boards.
Verified Answers, Not Guesses
How we verify this dated board
The 23 clues on this page are stored exactly as the game presented them on January 1, 2026, with each answer length-checked against its slot. Dated boards are never rewritten after publication.
Reviewed by Nadia Okonkwo, Crossword and Clue Editor at Puzzle Solved. The full checking routine is in the methodology, and the standards every page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Last checked — Sep 6, 2026Crossword Master by the numbers
How to Solve a Crossword Master Puzzle
The order that clears a crossword fastest, whatever the theme.
Start with the fills you are certain of
Short answers with common letter patterns anchor the grid. Every letter one of them places is a free constraint on the crossing clues, which is why the grid opens up far faster from the easy corners than from the clue you are stuck on.
Use the crossings, not the clue
When a clue will not give, stop reading it and look at what crosses it. Two or three confirmed letters usually reduce the answer to one candidate, and that is quicker than re-reading a clue you have already failed to solve.
Let the theme carry the long answers
The long entries usually share a theme, so once one of them falls the others follow the same pattern. Solve a long answer and re-read the other long clues immediately — they are rarely independent.