What is the answer to the crossword clue "accustom"?

There is more than one. 7 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Five squares is INURE, and it is the answer setters reach for far more often than any other, partly because the word is otherwise rare enough that solvers only meet it in grids.

How many letters is the answer to "accustom"?

Anything from 4 to 9. The length with the most candidates is 5. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.

Crossword clue

Accustom crossword clue

7 words in our dictionary can answer the crossword clue "accustom", from 4 letters up to 9, grouped below by the length of your slot.

Written by Blake Boege

Answers by length

5 different lengths answer this one. Yours is whichever row matches the squares in the grid.

Letters	Answers
4	hook
5	inure teach
6	addict harden
8	indurate
9	habituate

What this list looks like

The short ones are worth learning: HOOK at 4 letters, which is where a setter goes when the grid is tight.

1 of these mean the same as the clue and 6 are kinds of it, which is a distinction worth holding on to when two look equally good.

Which one does the setter mean?

Five squares is INURE, and it is the answer setters reach for far more often than any other, partly because the word is otherwise rare enough that solvers only meet it in grids.

How these differ

INURE means to accustom someone to something unpleasant, which is a narrower thing than the clue suggests: you are inured to hardship, not to comfort. HARDEN and INDURATE are the same idea more physically, INDURATE also being a medical term for tissue becoming firm. HABITUATE is the neutral word and the one a psychologist would use. ADDICT and HOOK are the extreme end, where the accustoming has become dependence. TEACH is the loosest fit and only works in the sense of teaching someone a habit.

Still stuck? Filter by the letters you have

Got a crossing letter? The word finder searches the same dictionary as this page, with a box for the first letter, the last, and anything in between.

Where these answers come from

Computed, not copied. Every word above is recorded by WordNet as meaning “accustom” or as naming a kind of it, and each one is in the 173,000-wordlist this site searches. We hold no newspaper's answer key and reproduce no published crossword.

Common questions

What is the answer to the crossword clue "accustom"?: There is more than one. 7 words in our dictionary fit this clue, and which one a puzzle wants depends on the length of the slot and the crossing letters. Five squares is INURE, and it is the answer setters reach for far more often than any other, partly because the word is otherwise rare enough that solvers only meet it in grids.
How many letters is the answer to "accustom"?: Anything from 4 to 9. The length with the most candidates is 5. Count the squares in your grid and read only that row of the table.