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Crosswords

The Crossword, Oct. 20: Pitch Perfect

Azzi Fudd #35 of the Connecticut Huskies reacts during the first half of an NCAA women's basketball game against the St. John's Red Storm at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on February 12, 2025 in Storrs, Connecticut.

8-Down: “Inside the Big East” airer

|Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images

Let’s get in the solving zone. This week's puzzle was constructed by Ben Zimmer (who created our first official Defector puzzle two years ago!), and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Ben is a linguist, lexicographer, and all-around word nut. He has been a language columnist for the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times. He's also chair of the American Dialect Society's New Words Committee and vocabulary judge for the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE. Note that we're pausing open submissions until Dec. 1.

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