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Cryptic crosswords are a particular type of crossword which have become widely popular in the UK, and several other Commonwealth nations such as Australia, New Zealand , Canada and India. They are also popular in Israel in a Hebrew form. Note that Americans are yet to adopt the cryptic crossword, due to stupidity. Each individual clue is a word puzzle in and of itself (often involving anagrams).

Popularity

All the major national newspapers in the UK carry both cryptic and concise crosswords. Of these, the cryptic crossword in The Times is particularly noted for its difficulty, while that in The Guardian is well-loved for its subtlety, humour and quirkiness.

Cryptic crosswords are uncommon in U.S. publications, though they can be found occasionally in the New York Times, in the British-based Financial Times and in magazines such as The Nation, Harper's, and Atlantic Monthly—the latter two monthlies print in each issue a difficult puzzle with wayward rules after the style associated with The Listener. Other sources of cryptic crosswords (at all difficulty levels) are puzzle books, Canadian newspapers such as the Toronto Star and in GAMES Magazine.

How cryptic clues work

In essence, a cryptic clue describes its answer accurately but only when the clue is read in a very devious way. What the clue appears to say when read normally (the surface reading) is almost never anything to do with the answer and is there as a distraction. The challenge for the solver is to find a way of reading the clue that leads to the solution.

In a typical clue, the answer is described twice, either of which can come first. One half of the clue is a definition, which must exactly match the part of speech and tense as the answer. The second half (the subsidiary indication) describes the answer in terms of wordplay. (The subsidiary indication can be a second definition in the case of double definition clues.) One of the tasks of the solver is to work out where this boundary occurs and insert a mental pause there when reading the clue cryptically. (Sometimes the two parts are joined with a link word or phrase.)

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 found. 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 TRAGICAL. This breaks down as follows:

• 15D: indicates location and direction (down) of clue in grid
• "Very sad" is the definition.
• "Unfinished story" gives "Tal" ("tale" with one letter missing, ie "unfinished")
• "rising smoke" gives "ragic" (a "cigar" is a smoke and this is a down clue and so "rising" indicates that "cigar" should be written going 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" which have special meaning within the cryptic crossword context (in the example above, "about", "unfinished" and "rising" all fall into this category) and learning these, or being able to spot them, is a useful and necessary part of becoming a skilled cryptic crossword solver.

Regional variation

There are notable differences between British and North American (including Canadian) cryptics. American cryptics are thought of as holding to a more rigid set of construction rules than British ones, which may be either praised or vilified depending on which side of the Atlantic a solver is from. American cryptics usually require all words in a clue to be used in service of the wordplay or definition, whereas British ones allow for more extraneous or supporting words.

Compilers or setters (or cruciverbalists as many term themselves) 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 common, often the meaning the solver must use is completely different to 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, 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).

Types of clue

Pure cryptic

The original cryptic clue, more commonly known as a double entendre or cryptic definition. Clues of this sort appeared in "straight" crosswords before cryptic crosswords existed. Here the clue appears to say one thing, but with a slight shift of viewpoint it says another. For example:

A word of praise? (8)

would give the answer ALLELUIA, a word used by Christians to praise God, but not what first springs to mind on reading the clue. Notice the question mark - this is often (though by no means always) used by compilers to indicate this sort of clue is one where you need to interpret the words in a different fashion. The way that a clue reads as an ordinary sentence is called its surface reading and is often used to disguise the need for a different interpretation of the clue's component words.

Another one might be:

The flower of London? (6)

which gives THAMES, a flow-er of London. Here, the surface reading suggests a flower, which disguises the fact that the name of a river is required.

This type of clue rarely appears in American cryptics, but is common in British and Canadian cryptics.

Double definition

A clue may, rather than having a definition part and a wordplay part, have two definition parts. Thus

Not seeing window covering (5)

would have the answer BLIND, because both "not seeing" and "window covering" can mean blind. Note that since these definitions come from the same root word, an American magazine might not allow this clue. American double definitions tend to require both parts to come from different roots, like in this clue:

Eastern European buff (6)

This takes advantage of the two very different meanings (and pronunciations) of POLISH, the one with the long "o" sound meaning "someone from Poland" and the one with the short "o" sound meaning "make shiny."

These clues tend to be short; in particular, two-word clues are almost always double definition clues.

Hidden words

This is when the answer appears in the clue, but it is hidden within one or more words. For example:

Found ermine, deer hides damaged (10)

gives UNDERMINED, which means (or could mean - sometimes definitions are a little shaky) "damaged" and can be found as part of "Found ermine deer". The word "hides" is used to mean "contains," but in the surface sense suggests "pelts".

Possible indicators of a hidden clue are "in part", "partially", "in", "within", "hides", "conceals", "some", and "held by".

Another example:

Introduction to do-gooder canine (3)

gives DOG, which is the first part of, or "introduction to", the word "do-gooder", and means "canine".

Reversals

A word that gets turned around to make another is a reversal. For example:

Returned beer fit for a king (5)

The answer is REGAL. "Lager" (i.e., "beer") is "returned" to make regal.

Other indicator words include "receding", "in the mirror", "going the wrong way", "to the left" or "left" (for across clues), and "rising" or "overturned" (for down clues).

Hidden backwards

Sometimes the above two clue types are combined. A word may be hidden backwards, such as in the clue:

Cruel to turn part of internet torrid (6)

The answer to this clue is ROTTEN. The phrase "to turn" indicates "to reverse," and "part of" suggests a piece of "internet torrid".

"Charade" clues

Here the answer is formed by joining individually clued words to make a larger word (namely, the answer).

For example:

Outlaw leader managing money (7)

The answer is BANKING formed by BAN for "outlaw" and KING for "leader". The definition is "managing money". With this example, the words go next to each other in the clue as they do in the answer - it isn't specifically indicated. However, where the parts go in relation to others is sometimes indicated with words like "against", "after", "with" or (in a down clue) "above".

Containers

A container clue puts one set of letters inside another. So:

Perfume cloth seen in European nation (9)

gives FRAGRANCE, placing "rag" ("cloth") inside "france" ("European nation").

Other container indicators are "around," "clutching," "enters," and the like.

Anagrams

An anagram is a rearrangement of a certain section of the clue to form the answer. This is usually indicated by words such as 'strange', 'bizarre', 'muddled', 'wild', 'drunk', or any other term indicating change. One example might be:

Chaperone shredded corset (6)

gives ESCORT, which means chaperone and is an anagram of corset, indicated by the word shredded.

Anagram clues are characterized by an indicator word adjacent to a phrase that has the same number of letters as the answer. The indicator tells the solver that there is an anagram they need to solve in order to work out the answer. Indicators come either before or after the letters to be anagrammed. In an American cryptic, only the words given in the clue may be anagrammed; in some older puzzles, the words to be anagrammed may be clued and then anagrammed. So in this clue:

Chew honeydew fruit (5)

chew is the anagram indicator, honeydew clues melon, which is to be anagrammed, and fruit is the definition for the answer, LEMON.

Other possible anagram indicators, among the thousands possible: abstract, absurd, alien, alternative, awkward, bad, barmy, blend, break, careless, chaotic, clumsy, contrived, convert, corrupt, develop, doctor, eccentric, fabricate, fake, fix, fudge, ground, hammer, hybrid, jostle, knead, loose, maybe, messy, mutant, new, novel, odd, order, outrageous, peculiar, poor, questionable, remodel, resort, rough, sort, style, troubled, twist, unconventional, unsound, vary.

Homophones

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings, such as "night" and "knight". Homophone clues always have an indicator word or phrase that has to do with phonetics, such as "reportedly", "they say", "vocal", "to the audience", and "is heard".

An example of a homophone clue is

We hear twins shave (4)

which is a clue for PARE, which means "shave" and is a homophone of pair, or "twins". The homophone is indicated by "we hear".

If the words are the same length, the homophone indicator is always adjacent to the word that is not the answer; therefore, in the previous example, "we hear" was adjacent to "twins" and the answer was pare rather than pair. The indicator could come between the words if they were of different lengths and the enumeration was given, such as in the case of "right" and "rite".

Deletions

Deletions consist of beheadments, curtailments, and internal deletions. In beheadments, a word loses its first letter. In curtailments, it loses its last letter, and internal deletions remove an inner letter, such as the middle one.

An example of a beheadment:

Beheaded celebrity is sailor (3)

The answer would be TAR, another word for "sailor", which is a "celebrity", or star, without the first letter.

Other indicator words of beheadment include "don't start", "topless", and "after the first".

An example of curtailment:

Shout, "Read!" endlessly (3)

The answer is BOO. If you ignore the punctuation, a book is a "read", and book "endlessly" is boo, a "shout".

Other indicators include "nearly" and "unfinished".

An example of internal deletion:

Challenging sweetheart heartlessly (6)

The answer is DARING, which means "challenging", and is darling without its middle letter, or "heartlessly".

Combination clues

A clue may employ more than one method of wordplay. For example:

Illustrious baron returns in pit (9)

The answer is HONORABLE. "Baron" "returns", or is reversed, and put inside "pit" or hole, to make honorable, or "illustrious".

"& lit."

A rare clue type is the "& lit." clue, standing for "and literally so". In this case, both the wordplay and the definition halves are the same. In some publications this is always indicated by an exclamation point at the end of the clue. For example:

God incarnate, essentially! (4)

The answer is ODIN. The Norse god Odin is hidden in "god incarnate," as clued by "essentially," but the definition of Odin is also the whole clue, as Odin is essentially a God incarnate.

Abbreviations in clues

Abbreviations are popular with crossword compilers for clueing individual letters or short sections of the answer.

Consider the following clue:

About to come between little Desmond and worker for discourse (7)

There are two abbreviations used here. "About" is abbreviated "c" (for "circa") and "little Desmond" indicates the diminutive of Desmond, namely DES, is required. The "c" is "to come between" DES and ANT (a worker - note that compilers also use "worker" to stand for BEE or HAND), giving DESCANT, which means "discourse".

Compilers make use of a large number of these crossword abbreviations.

Ximenean clues

The compiler Ximenes drew up rules for cryptic crossword clues, designed to give clues of a good standard that are fair to the solver.

Compilers

In Britain it is traditional -- dating from the crossword pioneer Edward (Bill) Powys Mathers (1892-1939), who called himself Torquemada in honour of the great inquisitor -- for compilers to use a single evocative pseudonym. One of them, who worked under the name Crispa before she retired in 2004, actually changed her legal name to Ruth Crisp to correspond.

The Times

Adrian Bell was the first to set The Times Crossword from 1930 and was one of those responsible for establishing its distinctive cryptic style. The Times came late to the crossword party - most other national papers already had one by 1930 - the Telegraph started in 1925, for instance.

Nowadays, the Times has a team of regular setters, many of whom set puzzles for other papers.

The Sunday Times

The main compiler for The Sunday Times is Barbara Hall (who also compiles the simpler dictionary crossword) and has been Puzzles Editor for nearly thirty years. The beneficial effect of crosswords' mental stimulation can be seen from Barbara's record - her first crossword was published in 1937 and she is still going strong after nearly seventy years of compilating. The Sunday Times is also home to the fiendish Mephisto puzzle set for the last 10 years by Chris Feetenby, Mike Laws and Tim Moorey

The Guardian

The Guardian newspaper features cryptic crosswords set by the following compilers, among others.

• Araucaria
• Brummie
• Bunthorne
• Chifonie
• Enigmatist
• Janus
• Paul
• Quantum
• Rufus
• Shed

The Independent

• Quixote
• Dac
• Merlin
• Phi
• Virgilius
• Empire
• Nimrod
• Mass
• Eimi
• Math
• Glow-worm
• Tees
• Obtrox

The Financial Times

• Falcon
• Cinephile (see Araucaria)
• Crux
• Dante (another pseudonym for Rufus)

New York Magazine

• Stephen Sondheim

===The Atlantic Monthly=== (available only online)

• Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

The Nation

• Frank W. Lewis

Harper's

• Richard E. Maltby Jr.

The Toronto Star

• Carolyn Andrews

The Ottawa Citizen

• Susannah Sears

The Globe and Mail

• Fraser Simpson
• Roger Squires (cryptics) uses Rufus, Dante, Hodge in UK

Games Magazine

• Patrick Berry
• Mike Selinker
• Bob Stigger
• Ron Sweet

Private Eye

In the early 1970s the satirical magazine's crossword was set by the Labour MP Tom Driberg, under the pseudonym of "Tiresias" (supposedly "a distinguished academic churchman"). It is currently set by Eddie James under the name "Cyclops". The crossword is frequently pornographic and, by all measures, usually intensely offensive. The prize for the first correct solution opened, £100, is unusually high for a crossword and attracts many entrants.

The Daily Telegraph

• Roger Squires
• Ann Tait
• Jeremy Mutch
• Don Manley
• Peter Chamberlain

Further reading

Chambers Crossword Manual by Don Manley (3rd edition, Chambers 2001)

See also

• Crossword

External links

• Cryptics Monthly
• The Crossword Centre
• A great British obsession (article from The Guardian, extracted from a book by Sandy Balfour)
• Description of cryptic crossword clues, guide to solving and examples
• Discussion of cryptic crossword clues (help, get help, discuss)
• The Times crossword team
• Ximenean clueing

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• Word puzzles