The term CROSSWORD PUZZLE COMPONENT can be summarized as a GRID, which is a four letter word. A crossword puzzle GRID is the foundation of a crossword puzzle, and it consists of a rectangular or square GRID of squares and blank spaces. The GRID is filled with black and white squares, and the black squares are used to separate the words. The words are placed in the GRID according to clues given by the puzzle creator. The goal of the puzzle is to fill in all the blank spaces with the correct letters to form the words.