Description

Daily puzzles are one of the clearest reader-retention plays in publishing right now — but until now, that’s mostly been available to newsrooms large enough to build or license it themselves. EV Crosswords brings the same mechanic to any WordPress site: self-serve, no enterprise contract, no sales call.

Generate word lists in seconds, from a prompt or from your own articles
The admin interface uses AI to generate lists of words and hints for your puzzles — either from a manual prompt, or straight from the content of one of your existing posts. This is the fastest way to turn an article you’ve already written into a puzzle readers can play.

Or skip AI entirely
Every AI feature is optional. Build a crossword manually by typing your word list or adding words one by one. Word search puzzles auto-generate from your word list (configurable grid size, optional diagonal/reversed words) and can be regenerated as many times as you like before saving.

Native to the block editor
Puzzles embed as real Gutenberg blocks — no shortcodes, no iframes.

See what readers actually finish
Built-in plays and completions tracking, right inside wp-admin, so you can see which puzzles are working without a separate analytics tool.

Bring your own AI provider
Works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or a self-hosted Ollama instance — your key, your data, your choice.

Free vs. Pro

EV Crosswords is free and fully functional today — unlimited puzzles, AI or manual word list creation, native blocks, and usage tracking, all included, no account required.

A Pro tier is in development for publishers who want to run daily puzzles as a serious retention strategy: scheduled/automated puzzle publishing, reader streaks and leaderboards, deeper retention analytics, and multi-site licensing for agencies. Pro isn’t available for purchase yet — see https://entreveloper.com/pricing/ for the current status.

Development

Development happens in Github:
EV-Crosswords

Screenshots

Example of Crossword created with the plugin, and displayed in the frontend of a Wordpress based website.

Example of Crossword added to a new Wordpress page, in the admin interface. — Example of Crossword created with the plugin, and displayed in the frontend of a Wordpress based website.

Blocks

This plugin provides 2 blocks.

Ev Crossword Viewer Display your crosswords.
Ev Word Search Viewer Display your word search puzzles.

Installation

Installation and use of this plugin is straightforward:

Install and activate the EntGenAI companion plugin first. Configure your preferred AI Provider (LLM) in the plugin admin interface.
Download and copy EV Crosswords to your Plugins directory.
Activate EV Crosswords through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Navigate to Dashboard Crosswords Settings Config to configure your AI provider and Entreveloper key (both optional).
Navigate to Dashboard Crosswords Settings Generate to create a word list (manually, via AI, or generated from one of your existing articles) and then generate a crossword or word search from it.
Save the puzzle and add it to any page as a block using the WordPress Block Editor (search for “Ev Crossword Viewer” or “Ev Word Search Viewer”).

Read more here: https://entreveloper.com/add-crosswords-to-your-wordpress-website/

FAQ

What does this plugin do?: It makes it easy to add crosswords and word search puzzles to pages on your WordPress website, with or without AI help.
What doesn’t this plugin do?: It does not directly create puzzles from a simple prompt. Instead, it gives you an easy way to use AI tools to create lists of words and hints (including generating them straight from an existing article), which are then used to generate a crossword or word search grid.
Does this plugin require anything else?: Yes. It requires the EntGenAI companion plugin to be installed and active. AI generation features also require an API key from a supported provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or a local Ollama installation).
Does this plugin modify any core WordPress, plugin or theme files?: No, it does not.
Is there a paid version?: Not yet. Everything in the current version is free. A Pro tier is in development for publishers who want puzzle scheduling/automation, reader streaks and leaderboards, deeper analytics, and multi-site licensing — check https://entreveloper.com/pricing/ for the latest status.