<p>You are given an <code>m x n</code> matrix <code>board</code>, representing the<strong> current </strong>state of a crossword puzzle. The crossword contains lowercase English letters (from solved words), <code>&#39; &#39;</code> to represent any <strong>empty </strong>cells, and <code>&#39;#&#39;</code> to represent any <strong>blocked</strong> cells.</p>

<p>A word can be placed<strong> horizontally</strong> (left to right <strong>or</strong> right to left) or <strong>vertically</strong> (top to bottom <strong>or</strong> bottom to top) in the board if:</p>

<ul>
	<li>It does not occupy a cell containing the character <code>&#39;#&#39;</code>.</li>
	<li>The cell each letter is placed in must either be <code>&#39; &#39;</code> (empty) or <strong>match</strong> the letter already on the <code>board</code>.</li>
	<li>There must not be any empty cells <code>&#39; &#39;</code> or other lowercase letters <strong>directly left or right</strong><strong> </strong>of the word if the word was placed <strong>horizontally</strong>.</li>
	<li>There must not be any empty cells <code>&#39; &#39;</code> or other lowercase letters <strong>directly above or below</strong> the word if the word was placed <strong>vertically</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<p>Given a string <code>word</code>, return <code>true</code><em> if </em><code>word</code><em> can be placed in </em><code>board</code><em>, or </em><code>false</code><em> <strong>otherwise</strong></em>.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/10/04/crossword-ex1-1.png" style="width: 478px; height: 180px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;#&quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;], [&quot; &quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;], [&quot;#&quot;, &quot;c&quot;, &quot; &quot;]], word = &quot;abc&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> true
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The word &quot;abc&quot; can be placed as shown above (top to bottom).
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/10/04/crossword-ex2-1.png" style="width: 180px; height: 180px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;, &quot;a&quot;], [&quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;, &quot;c&quot;], [&quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;, &quot;a&quot;]], word = &quot;ac&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> false
<strong>Explanation:</strong> It is impossible to place the word because there will always be a space/letter above or below it.</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/10/04/crossword-ex3-1.png" style="width: 478px; height: 180px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;#&quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;], [&quot; &quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;#&quot;], [&quot;#&quot;, &quot; &quot;, &quot;c&quot;]], word = &quot;ca&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> true
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The word &quot;ca&quot; can be placed as shown above (right to left). 
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>m == board.length</code></li>
	<li><code>n == board[i].length</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= m * n &lt;= 2 * 10<sup>5</sup></code></li>
	<li><code>board[i][j]</code> will be <code>&#39; &#39;</code>, <code>&#39;#&#39;</code>, or a lowercase English letter.</li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= word.length &lt;= max(m, n)</code></li>
	<li><code>word</code> will contain only lowercase English letters.</li>
</ul>

class Solution:
    def placeWordInCrossword(self, board: List[List[str]], word: str) -> bool:
        # Generate the word and its reverse for bidirectional checking
        words = [word, word[::-1]]

        def canPlaceWord(segment, word):
            # Length of the word
            length = len(word)
            # Check if the word can fit in the segment
            for i in range(length):
                if not (segment[i] == word[i] or segment[i] == ' '):
                    return False
            return True

        # Check each row and each column (by transposing the board)
        for B in [board, list(zip(*board))]:
            # Iterate through each line (row or column)
            for row in B:
                # Join the characters in the row (or column) into a single string
                row_str = ''.join(row)

                # Split the string by '#' to get segments between blocked cells
                segments = row_str.split('#')

                # Check if the word or its reverse can fit in any of the segments
                for w in words:
                    for segment in segments:
                        # Check if the segment is of the right length to fit the word
                        if len(segment) == len(word) and canPlaceWord(segment, w):
                            return True

        # Return False if the word cannot be placed in any direction
        return False
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