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This is a new type of puzzle I've devised: the AnaCross. Nothing new under the sun and all, I'm sure someone has made one before, but I've never seen it.

The rules are pretty simple. At the end of each row is a pool of letters; those letters are the letters that go in that row of the crossword. Normal crossword rules apply, so every line of letters makes a real, English word; there are no proper nouns in the puzzle. All words can be found in Merriam-Webster.

There is, in many cases, more than one word that fits any given row, but there should only be one arrangement that completes every word.

For example, the first row contains a four letter word going across plus the first letter of two other words going down, and those six letters are some arrangement of "CGLOOS".

enter image description here

Note the tag: the use of anagram solvers is highly discouraged.

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    $\begingroup$ This bears some resemblance to Puzzler's 'Jolly Mixtures' style crosswords, although there they give you the anagram of each individual answer rather than a whole row. They also do an 'Outsider' puzzle, where they list the row letters and the column letters but provide no blanks and just a list of clues in no particular order - as crosswords go, it's one of my favourite types. Worth a look if you live somewhere that you can buy the magazine! :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 18:20
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    $\begingroup$ all are words? no abbreviations? $\endgroup$
    – SteveV
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 21:47
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    $\begingroup$ Is the word going down at the bottom of column 9 technically a suffix rather than a word in its own right? (If so, I have a full solution - if not, then it's back to dealing with those pesky bottom 2 rows yet again...) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 22:08
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv It is a proper word. $\endgroup$
    – qwertyu63
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 22:11
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    $\begingroup$ Can you double check the last three rows to make sure there isn't a typo in one of the lines? $\endgroup$
    – SteveV
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 19:15

1 Answer 1

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here is one solution with the modified 11th row

enter image description here

I think there are be other valid solutions, but they would use archaic/obsolete words.

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  • $\begingroup$ Correct on all counts. Well done. $\endgroup$
    – qwertyu63
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ This is the exact same solution I also had, up to that typo in the puzzle. For ages I could only think the OP had used '-IUM', PRAM and SAY (hence my comment on the main post about suffixes). $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ Ditto here, more or less. Almost asked OP to send the sln so I could check it. This is far more expected than the crazy words I was forcing in! $\endgroup$
    – Amoz
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ Having also worked on this for quite a bit, a lot of it looks familiar. I found that with the original letters the only way I could get the bottom three lines to work was by subbing SKI DIVAS with VIA SKIDS but matching this upwards is very very difficult (probably impossible). $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:42
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    $\begingroup$ @stiv i was at the "I, um" roadblock too, hoping i could use two words. i ended up just trying to solve the last three lines by themselves and got nowhere, so was hoping for a typo $\endgroup$
    – SteveV
    Commented Mar 9, 2021 at 22:51

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