General Question

tinyfaery's avatar

At what point is someone cheating on a crossword puzzle/other word puzzle?

Asked by tinyfaery (44241points) August 22nd, 2008

When I get stuck, I often turn to the internet, dictionaries, and thesauri to help me find information. It doesn’t always help, but it does at times. Is this cheating? Do you do it? If looking it up isn’t cheating, what is?

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8 Answers

augustlan's avatar

It’s not cheating, unless you look at the answer key!

augustlan's avatar

Think of it as an open book test…you still have to know where to find the information.

flyawayxxballoon's avatar

I do the same thing…crossword puzzles really aren’t my strongsuit. I don’t really think that this would be classified as cheating, exactly. More like getting help from an outside source. There are no real written rules to crossword puzzles, thus there are no broken rules, so there is no actual cheating involved.
Or at least that’s what I tell myself so I don’t feel like I cheated.
=)

SuperMouse's avatar

I’m with August, it isn’t cheating until you look at the answer key.

JackAdams's avatar

You really can’t cheat, IMHO, unless you are competing against another human being.

Crosswords are solitary puzzles, mostly.

August 23, 2008, 5:24 AM EDT

marinelife's avatar

Cheating? It’s a game. If you don’t know an answer and you look it up, that is called learning.

JackAdams's avatar

@Marina: That is an EXCELLENT answer!

August 23, 2008, 1:47 PM EDT

sdeutsch's avatar

Crosswords are entertainment, and if you get stuck, it’s really not as entertaining anymore. I say, cheat away and prolong the fun! =)

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