# My theory on why the same word pops up in different crossword puzzles **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 23, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670 "2008-01-23T15:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/21 "2008-01-23T21:36:34Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] I don’t understand why you guys are convinced it can’t be a coincidence. [/QUOTE] I’ve had that sort of thing happen to me every once in a while under circumstances where it couldn’t be anything _but_ coincidence. I’ll see the same relatively uncommon word (or the same word clued in the same slightly quirky way!) in more than one puzzle in the same week, or even the same day, but the two puzzles come from completely different sources. As with just about anything else, with a large enough simple space it would be very surprising if there were no coincidences. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/22 "2008-01-23T22:21:51Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] . . . . That ain’t no Oero. [/QUOTE] I’m gonna take a needle from my etui and stitch that on a pillow. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/23 "2008-01-24T00:13:52Z")
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting] I’m gonna take a needle from my etui and stitch that on a pillow. [/QUOTE] LOL!!! And be sure to Oero it! I love it. 😃😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/24 "2008-01-24T00:31:00Z")
Personally, I’ve had the suspicion for a while that if one were to construct a letter-frequency chart for a large sample of crosswords, that the crossword frequencies would be proportional to the square of the dictionary frequencies. Letters like Q or Z that are rare in normal usage would be even rarer in crosswords, since you’d have to fit them into two different words at once, but common letters (like all the vowels, or S or T) are easy to cross, so they’d be even more over-represented. Of course, this in turn means that words which have common letters more heavily represented (like “Dunkable cookie”, or “Butter substitute”) would show up often. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/25 "2008-01-24T00:40:11Z")
If I see one more puzzle with obi in it. I know it’s a short, oddly constructed word that fits into places other things wouldn’t. But goddamn it, “Sapporo sash,” “kimono closer,” and “geisha bow” are not clever, challenging clues when they’ve been used approximately 500 bagazillionthousandhundredeleventy times. Christ people, maybe it’s time to retire that clue’s number and hang it in the gym. It was good, I admit, it’s a strange word that people didn’t know before you started sticking it into your puzzles. But there’s a reason no one asks why the chicken crossed the road expecting people to laugh anymore (unless the punchline involves being stapled to dead babies). ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/26 "2008-01-24T00:49:25Z")
[QUOTE=BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed] If I see one more puzzle with obi in it. I know it’s a short, oddly constructed word that fits into places other things wouldn’t. But goddamn it, “Sapporo sash,” “kimono closer,” and “geisha bow” are not clever, challenging clues when they’ve been used approximately 500 bagazillionthousandhundredeleventy times . . . . [/QUOTE] Would they still be allowed to use [ibo](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Ibo)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MagicEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@MagicEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MagicEyes)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/27 "2008-01-24T02:26:10Z")
**twickster,** I’m still not convinced that it’s a coincidence. It happens much too often that two puzzles in the same week have the same word. I’m going to go do two crossword puzzles and see if they have a matching word. I’ll check back with you when I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/28 "2008-01-24T02:50:30Z")
[QUOTE=MagicEyes] **twickster,** I’m still not convinced that it’s a coincidence. It happens much too often that two puzzles in the same week have the same word. I’m going to go do two crossword puzzles and see if they have a matching word. I’ll check back with you when I’m done. [/QUOTE] And that will prove what, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/29 "2008-01-24T03:04:02Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] I never knew what an epee was before I started doing crosswords. 😃 [/QUOTE] Clearly you haven’t played any Square-Enix games. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/30 "2008-01-24T03:23:42Z")
This is why I quit doing crosswords: the 187th time I came across the word “eyrie,” I decided that, in order to become a “master” crossword puzzler, all you had to do was memorize the extremely limited lexicon of the “professional” crossworder. Where’s the challenge in that? That’s when I became bored with it. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/31 "2008-01-24T05:58:43Z")
[QUOTE=lissener] This is why I quit doing crosswords: the 187th time I came across the word “eyrie,” I decided that, in order to become a “master” crossword puzzler, all you had to do was memorize the extremely limited lexicon of the “professional” crossworder. Where’s the challenge in that? That’s when I became bored with it. [/QUOTE] I was doing some of an old Margaret Farrar S&S book. Those puzzles are full of obscure geographical locations, animals, Polynesian gods and all sorts of crap. Usually crossing. Now I know why my mother-in-law had a crossword dictionary by her side doing them. I need a dictionary maybe twice a year for modern puzzles. Yes, there is a small set of words with odd letters, but it is nothing like what it used to be. All hail the modern constructors! Really, get a book of old puzzles and give it a shot. You never complain about an aerie or oreo again. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670/32 "2008-01-24T18:31:37Z")
I want to thank all of you, especially Twickster for acknowledging the truth of my ingenius theory. I promise I won’t change. I’ll always be the affable, self effacing, supremely lovable, and all around nice guy I’ve always been, even though I’m light years smarter and cuter than all of you. Love to all, BarnOwl The Modest [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-theory-on-why-the-same-word-pops-up-in-different-crossword-puzzles/434670.md?page=1)