Crossword Master Puzzle 885 Answers
18 clues with verified answers, 1–7 letters each — right on the game average of 18.6 clues per puzzle.
Puzzle 885 — Complete Answer Guide
This page lists every clue and answer for Crossword Master puzzle 885, part of the puzzles 801–900 block. The board carries 18 clues in total, with answers running from 1 to 7 letters and 63 letters combined. That is right on the game-wide average of 18.6 clues per puzzle.
Worth knowing before you start: 8 of these 18 clues also appear in other Crossword Master puzzles with a different required answer. Crossword Master reuses clue text heavily — 2,496 of the 15,718 distinct clues in the game have more than one possible answer — so an answer you remember from an earlier board may not fit here. The list below is the one for puzzle 885 specifically. The longest answer here is Earnest at 7 letters.
Step to puzzle 884 or puzzle 886, browse the whole puzzles 801–900 block, or go back to the Crossword Master hub for all 2,001 puzzles and the daily archive.
18 Clues in Puzzle 885
| # | Clue | Answer | Letters | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Sincere REUSED | Earnest | 7 | |
| #2 | W, …, Y, … | Xz | 2 | |
| #3 | Scratch REUSED | Itch | 4 | |
| #4 | Demure | Coy | 3 | |
| #5 | Aflare | Alight | 6 | |
| #6 | Nigh | Near | 4 | |
| #7 | __Ow REUSED | Sl | 2 | |
| #8 | Absent REUSED | A | 1 | |
| #9 | … Am REUSED | I | 1 | |
| #10 | Decree REUSED | Edict | 5 | |
| #11 | One Time REUSED | Once | 4 | |
| #12 | Ohio | Oh | 2 | |
| #13 | Reverence | Awe | 3 | |
| #14 | Local Speech | Dialect | 7 | |
| #15 | Rating REUSED | Grade | 5 | |
| #16 | Digital Input | Di | 2 | |
| #17 | Female Bull | Cow | 3 | |
| #18 | Northeast | Ne | 2 |
Clues Reused Elsewhere
These clues appear in other puzzles with a different required answer. The answer shown is the one for puzzle 885.
Sincere — here the answer is Earnest. Elsewhere this clue can be Honest, in puzzle 741.
__Ow — here the answer is Sl. Elsewhere this clue can be Sn, Cr, Br, R, in puzzles 325, 328, 332, 529 and 5 more.
Decree — here the answer is Edict. Elsewhere this clue can be Fiat, in puzzles 694, 728, 1189.
Puzzles Around 885
Puzzle 885 — Questions
What are the answers to Crossword Master puzzle 885?
How many clues are in puzzle 885?
Which block does puzzle 885 belong to?
Why does a clue here have a different answer in another puzzle?
3 Tips for Crossword Master Puzzle 885
Start from the 7-letter answer
Puzzle 885 runs 18 clues with answers between 1 and 7 letters, the longest being Earnest. Long entries cross the most squares, so filling one confirms a letter in several shorter answers at once — on a grid this size that usually cascades through half the board.
8 of these clues have more than one known answer
Crossword Master reuses clue text across puzzles with different solutions, and 8 of the 18 clues on this board are among them. That is why the crossing letters matter more than the clue: check the length first, then the letters you already have, before committing to an answer you remember from another puzzle.
Where this puzzle sits
Puzzle 885 holds 18 clues against a game average of 18.6, and is part of the 801–900 block. Puzzle 884 comes before it and puzzle 886 after. Difficulty drifts up slowly across the 2,001 puzzles rather than jumping, so neighbours are a fair guide.
Verified Answers, Not Guesses
How we verify puzzle 885
The 18 clue-and-answer pairs on this page come straight from the puzzle data, not from another answer site. Each answer is checked to match the length its grid slot allows, and clue wording is stored exactly as the game shows it — which is what lets us tell you when the same clue has a different answer in another puzzle.
Reviewed by Nadia Okonkwo, Crossword and Clue Editor at Puzzle Solved. The full checking routine is in the methodology, and the standards every page is held to are in the editorial policy.
Last checked — Aug 25, 2026Crossword Master by the numbers
How to Solve a Crossword Master Puzzle
The order that clears a crossword fastest, whatever the theme.
Start with the fills you are certain of
Short answers with common letter patterns anchor the grid. Every letter one of them places is a free constraint on the crossing clues, which is why the grid opens up far faster from the easy corners than from the clue you are stuck on.
Use the crossings, not the clue
When a clue will not give, stop reading it and look at what crosses it. Two or three confirmed letters usually reduce the answer to one candidate, and that is quicker than re-reading a clue you have already failed to solve.
Let the theme carry the long answers
The long entries usually share a theme, so once one of them falls the others follow the same pattern. Solve a long answer and re-read the other long clues immediately — they are rarely independent.