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Dear fellow word nerds,
My students learning English as a foreign language like doing crossword puzzles to learn new words. I'm already familiar with tools that create crosswords where you enter the words and clues (definitions) yourself.
I'm looking (hoping) for a crossword puzzle generator where I can enter words I want to use, and then the definitions get pulled from an online dictionary. Anyone ever heard of something like this? The lazy man's crossword puzzle maker, as it were.
Thanks for any tips,
N
I Googled "crossword puzzle maker" and got 913,000 hits. Many are free apps. But every one I looked at, and I looked at quite a few, require both words and clues (definitions) to be entered manually. No "automatic look-ups" that I could find.
Now of course, the clues don't necessarily have to be "definitions" and can also center around synonyms and antonyms, or even wordplay. But since this is for an ESL course, I'm guessing you'd want to stay away from wordplay and stick more to actual meanings.
That said, I believe the easiest route is to open one of these free apps in your browser. Then open a second instance of your browser. Get the online dictionary in that second window. If your monitor is large enough, it should be pretty simple to copy and paste back and forth. I have a 24" wide-screen flat panel monitor, and often have 2 documents open side by side for exactly that purpose (cutting, copying, pasting). I don't do crosswords, but the magic of multiple-window browsing should really speed your work flow.
Thanks Heimhenge! I would certainly be willing to do the necessary cut and paste, but I was looking for an easy option for the students who would create their own crosswords. The extra work would of course help their learning process, but it's a voluntary exercise so the higher threshold might prevent them from doing it altogether.
It's true, there are a lot of free tools out there. Guess I'll have to motivate the learners to enter all the info themselves...
Thanks again.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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