Cryptic Crossword - How Cryptic Clues Work

How Cryptic Clues Work

In essence, a cryptic clue leads to its answer as long as it is read in the right way. What the clue appears to say when read normally (the surface reading) is a distraction and usually has nothing to do with the clue answer. The challenge is to find the way of reading the clue that leads to the solution.

A typical clue provides two ways of getting to the answer, either of which can come first. One part of the clue is a definition, which usually exactly matches the part of speech, tense, and number of the answer. The other part (the subsidiary indication, or wordplay) provides an alternative route to the answer (this part would be a second definition in the case of double definition clues). One of the tasks of the solver is to find the boundary between definition and wordplay and insert a mental pause there when reading the clue cryptically. (Sometimes the two parts are joined with a link word or phrase such as "from" or "could be".)

Because a typical cryptic clue describes its answer in detail and often more than once, the solver can usually have a great deal of confidence in the answer once it has been determined. This is in contrast to non-cryptic crossword clues which often have several possible answers and force the solver to use the crossing letters to distinguish which was intended.

Here is an example (taken from The Guardian crossword of Aug 6 2002, set by "Shed").

15D Very sad unfinished story about rising smoke (8)

is a clue for . This breaks down as follows.

• 15D indicates the location and direction (down) of the solution in the grid
• "Very sad" is the definition
• "unfinished story" gives "tal" ("tale" with one letter missing; i.e., unfinished)
• "rising smoke" gives "ragic" (a "cigar" is a smoke and this is a down clue so "rising" indicates that "cigar" should be written up the page; i.e., backwards)
• "about" means that the letters of "tal" should be put either side of "ragic", giving "tragical"
• "(8)" says that the answer is a single word of eight letters.

There are many "code words" or "indicators" that have a special meaning in the cryptic crossword context. (In the example above, "about", "unfinished" and "rising" all fall into this category). Learning these, or being able to spot them, is a useful and necessary part of becoming a skilled cryptic crossword solver.

Compilers or setters often use slang terms and abbreviations, generally without indication, so familiarity with these can be useful. Also words that can mean more than one thing are commonly exploited: often the meaning the solver must use is completely different from the one it appears to have in the clue. Some examples are:

• Bloomer - often means flower (a thing that blooms).
• Flower - often means river (a thing that flows).
• Lead - could be the metal, an electric cable, or the verb.
• Novel - could be a book, or a word for new, or a code-word indicating an anagram.
• Permit - could be a noun (meaning licence) or a verb (meaning allow).

Of these examples, "flower" is an invented meaning by back-formation from the -er suffix, which cannot be confirmed in a standard dictionary. A similar trick is played in the old clue "A wicked thing" for CANDLE, where the -ed suffix must be understood in its "equipped with a . . . ." meaning. In the case of the -er suffix, this trick could be played with other meanings of the suffix, but except for river => BANKER (a river is not a 'thing that banks' but a 'thing that has banks'), this is rarely done.