| Theme Type
|| Times Used
|Additions||141||Theme entries created by adding a letter, letters, or word to a word or phrase.
|Alliterations||22||Theme entries are two-word (or more) phrases that have a common first letter or letter combination.|
|Anagram / Scramble||23||All or portion of each theme entry is scrambled. |
|Antonyms||10||Theme entries have opposite meanings or contain words that have opposite meanings.
|Bookends||3||Starting and ending letters form a word or starting and ending words form a phrase in each theme entry. |
|Category Members||637||Entries or words that are members of a specific category.
|Combined Types||178||Combination of two or more theme types.
|Compounds||47||Words used in theme entries that can come before or after a target word.
|Containers||86||Theme entries contain a \"hidden\" word or letter sequence
|Definitions||75||Theme entries are in the form of a definition, while the clues are usually related and carry the theme.|
|Deletions||52||Theme entries created by deleting a letter, sound, or word from a word or phrase.|
|Designated Squares||1||Specific squares within the grid are identified in some manner and when read in order reveal a thematic message.
|Direction change||6||Entries change direction as they are entered in the grid.|
|Double/Triple Letters||28||Words or phrases containing double or triple letters are featured.|
|Featured Letter(s)||21||Entries feature or highlight a given letter or group of letters|
|Grid design||7||The arrangement of black and white squares plays into the theme.|
|Holidays and Special Occasions||28||Theme is related to the day in which it appears.|
|Homophones||32||Theme entries have words that sound like other words.|
|Jokes / Riddles||8||Jokes or riddles is carried out by the theme entries |
|Language / Accent||11||Theme entries use another language, accent, or manner of speech|
|Mini theme||26||Two related major entries in an otherwise themeless puzzle|
|Pairs / Triplets / nTuplets||12||Theme entries are formed by adding together two or more words/phrases in the same category.|
|Palindromes||4||Theme entries reads same forward and backward.|
|Positional||12||Theme entries are positioned in specific grid locations or are positioned relative to each other.|
|Proper Name Play||19||Theme involves play with proper names|
|Punchlines||9||theme entries are punchlines led into by the clues.|
|Puns||132||Theme relies on the usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound |
|Quips and Quotes||138||Theme entries reveal a quip or quote revealed in order.
|Rebus||101||Theme entries contain a segment that consists of a picture or string of letters to be entered in a single square.|
|Redivision||10||Theme entries are regular phrases clued as if the division between words were different than usual.|
|Repetition||40||Theme entries contain repeated words or sounds|
|Reversals||7||Part or all of the theme entries are in reverse.|
|Rhyme||51||Theme entries or words within the entries that rhyme.|
|Sequence||106||Series of words or phrases that produce a sequence from theme entry to theme entry. Word ladders (series of words that change one letter to move from one word to the next - invention of Lewis Carroll) are a special type of sequence.|
|Shared Centers||10||Two words or phrases that share an intervening word or segment.|
|Shared Initials||7||Theme entries are phrases that share the same initial letters, excluding alliterations.|
|Shift||3||theme entries consistently shift letter(s) or word(s)|
|Spoonerisms||2||Spoonerisms are phrases or words with swapped sounds. The name Spoonerism comes from the Reverend William Archibald Spooner who is reputed to have been particularly prone to making this type of verbal slip.|
|Stacked 15s||81||Fifteen-letter entries stacked on each other in a usually themeless puzzle|
|String / Chain||14||Theme entries formed of individual words in end-to-end fashion forming a string or chain|
|Substitutions||112||One letter, group of letters, or word(s) is(are) substituted for another in the theme entries.|
|Switch||17||Letters or words within theme entry phrases switch positions.|
|Synonyms||259||Theme entries or words within theme entries that have like meanings.|
|Tribute||33||Theme entries create a puzzle tribute to person or place.|
|Verse||9||Theme entries combine to create a verse, poem, limerick, or other similar form.|