NYT Crossword Flashcards

A Python tool for scraping and generating flashcards from New York Times crossword clues using data from xwordinfo.com.

Features

• Scrape clues for specific words - Get historical NYT crossword clues for any word
• Generate wordlists - Create custom wordlists from the most popular crossword words
• Create flashcards - Generate flashcards for common crossword clues with their most frequent answers
• Batch processing - Process entire wordlists and export to CSV

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• pip (Python package manager)

Install Dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Or install manually:

pip install requests beautifulsoup4 pandas

Usage

Process Entire Wordlist (Default)

Process all words from wordlist.csv and save results to output.csv:

python3 nytwords.py

Generate Fresh Wordlist

Create a new wordlist from the Popular page on xwordinfo.com:

python3 nytwords.py --generate-wordlist

Generate Common Clues Flashcards

Create flashcards for the most common crossword clues with their top 5 most-used answers:

# Generate flashcards for top 50 common clues (default)
python3 nytwords.py --common-clues

# Generate flashcards for top 100 common clues
python3 nytwords.py --common-clues 100

This creates common_clues_flashcards.csv with:

• Clue - The crossword clue (e.g., "Zip")
• ClueCount - Number of times the clue appears in NYT crosswords
• TopAnswers - Top 5 most-used answers with usage counts (e.g., "NIL (25), NADA (25), PEP (10)")
• NumTopAnswers - Number of top answers returned

Note: Cross-reference clues (e.g., "See 17-Across") are automatically filtered out.

Use as a Python Module

from nytwords import get_clues_for_word

# Get 5 clues for "AREA" and print to console
get_clues_for_word("AREA", 5)

Available Functions

• generate_wordlist_from_popular(output_file="wordlist.csv", top_n=100) - Generate wordlist from Popular page
• get_clues_for_word(word, n_clues, session=None) - Get clues for a single word
• process_wordlist_csv(csv_file="wordlist.csv", output_file="output.csv") - Process entire CSV file
• generate_common_clues_flashcards(output_file="common_clues_flashcards.csv", top_n=50, top_answers=5) - Generate flashcards for common clues
• get_common_clues(top_n=100, session=None) - Get list of most common clues
• get_answers_for_clue(clue, session=None, top_n=5) - Search for top N most-used answers to a specific clue
• create_session() - Create authenticated session for xwordinfo.com

Data Files

• wordlist.csv - Input file with word statistics (Word, Clues, Occurrences, Rank)
• output.csv - Generated output with format (Word, Clue, Date, Rank, Occurrences)
• common_clues_flashcards.csv - Generated flashcards (Clue, ClueCount, TopAnswers, NumTopAnswers)

How It Works

1. Establishes a session by visiting xwordinfo.com main page and Popular page
2. Makes HTTP requests to xwordinfo.com with word/clue parameters
3. Parses HTML tables containing clue and answer data
4. Extracts dates, clues, and answer text for each occurrence
5. Saves results to CSV using pandas

Notes

• Only finds clues for words with recent usage (2020-2025 timeframe)
• Words without recent clues will show "Could not find clues table" message
• Processing entire wordlists takes several minutes due to rate limiting
• Respects xwordinfo.com's rate limits to avoid server strain

License

This project is for educational purposes. Please respect xwordinfo.com's terms of service when using this tool.

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests to improve this tool!