What Word Puzzle Uses a Checkered Grid Filled with Words? It's a Crossword

You are describing a Crossword Puzzle.

Why It Fits

• Checkered Grid: Black and white squares form a checkered pattern. Black squares separate words; white squares hold letters.
• Interlocking Words: Words run Across (left-to-right) and Down (top-to-bottom), sharing letters at intersections.
• Clues: Each word has a numbered clue (definition, wordplay, trivia).

Related Variants

• Cryptic Crossword: Clues are wordplay puzzles (anagrams, hidden words, double meanings). UK standard.
• American-Style: Fully checked (every letter in both Across and Down), rotational symmetry, fewer black squares.
• British / Cryptic Style: Lattice grid (more black squares), cryptic clues.
• Fill-In / Word Fit: No clues—just a word list to fit into a blank grid.
• Arroword / Clue-in-Grid: Clues inside the grid (arrows indicate direction). Common in Europe.
• Acrostic: Answers to clues form a quotation; first letters spell author/source.

Not a Crossword?

• Word Search / Word Find: Letters in grid, find hidden words (no interlocking, no clues).
• Sudoku: Numbers 1–9, logic, no words.
• Scrabble / Bananagrams: Free-form interlocking, no fixed grid, no clues.

If you meant a specific puzzle you're looking at: Describe the grid shape, clue style, or any unique rules, and I'll identify it precisely.