4 May
2004
4 May
'04
4:11 p.m.
My significant other <rcs@CS.Arizona.EDU> notes that
My friend Bob Baillie <rjbaillie@frii.com> asks
Has anyone ever estimated how many crossword puzzles of size N by N there are, where the entries are words in English?
It depends on the rules. For example, very few real crossword puzzles limit themselves to English words. The most important question, though, is whether or not single letters are permitted, as in "Roman 5" or "letter trilled in Spanish" or "13th in the alphabet". If single letters are allowed, then I'd guess that there are about 10^16 basic word blocks, and it would seem that they could be patched together almost arbitrarily using little "glue" words. Hilarie