A word square is a kind of acrostic. It is formed of several different words, all of the same length. The words contain as many letters as there are words across or down (known as the “order” of the square). When the words are written one under each other, the same words read both horizontally and vertically. A popular puzzle dating well into ancient times, the word square is related to the magic square.

Examples

Here are examples of English word squares up to order eight: