This refers to crosswords that are a contraction of “and literally so”.
They typically rely on word play and are considered hard as there is no indicator or hint to help.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “A heavenly lighter (3)”, this would be the sun. With cryptic definitions, these consist of just a definition and are phrased to be deliberately confusing. This would be because “fish round” would be “cod” with the letters reversed round the other way. ReversalsĪs the name suggests, reversals refer to words or phrases that can be reversed to give new words.Īn indicator word like “turned”, “backward” or “reversed” made be used as a hint.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Physician brings fish round (3)”, the answer would be “doc”. The answer will be something that is similar in pronunciation, but spelt slightly differently.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Narrow channel – not winding, we hear (6)”, the answer would be “strait”.įrom “not winding” you’d deduce “straight”, and different spelling of this is “strait”. Homophones are pairs of words or phrases that have indicators referring to sound, like “so we hear” or “it’s said” or “speech”. Then you scan the letters for a word fitting the phrase, and the answer is “north”, found hidden between Pakista n or Thailand. Typically “hidden” indicator words are used, such as “buried in”, “concealed” or even “in” and “from”.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Pole coming from Pakistan or Thailand (5)” you can tell it is a hidden word, due to “from” being in the phrase. Hidden wordsįor hidden words, the solution can be embedded within the clue or concealed inside a longer word. These are the simplest kind of cryptic crossword as you get two hints at the answer.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Yearn for quite a while (4)” the answer would be “long”, as it fits with both parts of the phrase. You then look at the other words to reach the answer “tar”, as celebrity is also known as a “star” and you “behead” the first letter.
Cryptic crosswords clues full#
There is a full list of them here, and can either mean removing the first letter, last letter, or a central letters, depending on which is used.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Beheaded celebrity is sailor (3)”, the word “beheaded” mean that a word loses its first letter. Deletionsĭeletions are words and phrases in a cryptic clue indicating that letters are to be removed. Your next step is to look at “relative” and “Highland dance and showing off” to get the final answer of “flaunting”, containing “aunt” for “relative” and “flaunting” for “showing off”.
If the inner word needs to go within the outer word (Content), look for indicator words such as “within”, “filling”, or “entering”.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Relative entering Highland dance and showing off (9)” you know the inner word needs to go within the outer word due to “entering”. If the word is inside or around the cryptic indicator (Container), look out for indicator words such as “holding”, “surrounding,” or “swallowing.” You can tell if it is Container or Content using the cryptic indicator hint word. However, with this new category, you have to wrap the outer word around the inner word (Container) or you have to put the inner word within the outer word (Content). Containers and ContentsĬontainers and Contents are similar to Charades as they contain words or phrases that can be broken up into separate parts one after the other.
This would be made from the “weapon” being a lance, and the Round Table knight would make this Lancelot. Separate parts are defined one after another.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Weapon used by many a Round Table knight (8)”, the answer would be “Lancelot”. CharadesĪnother type is Charades, which is when a word or phrase is broke up into separate parts, as in a game of Charades. In this case, “Do legal owners” is the anagram fodder, “birds” is the definition hint, so the answer is “Long-eared owls”. The indicator word comes next to the phrase that is anagram fodder and needs its letters reshuffling.
Cryptic crosswords clues free#
There is a list of indicator words to learn here.įor example, in the cryptic crossword “Do legal owners free birds? (4-5,4)”, “free” would be the indicator word alerting you to the fact it is an anagram puzzle. These puzzles are indicated by a hint word such as “muddled”, “strange”, “wild” or “drunk” – so look out for these words. The different types of cryptic puzzles include anagrams, double definitions and charades
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