This is where every other letter in a clue gives us the answer. So if you replace the i in tie with hem, you get the answer theme. This is where letters or words are replaced by other letters or words. Monsieur = m (the French abbreviation), which goes inside Love a duck! And the cryptic elements are as follows: Love = o (the tennis term for zero) Love a duck! Monsieur’s inside doing porridge (7) Setters like to add or subtract single letters or divide clues into many different parts. Take the first letters of Key is sometimes stuck completely until rattling loose and you get the answer - kisscurl. The indicator that this comes with the word openings, the definitions comes with lock. Key is sometimes stuck completely until rattling loose openings in lock (8) Something similar happens in this clue, except the indicator and the definition come at the end: So take the first letter of hostile armies invaded famous ancient and you get the answer - Haifa. Leaders of hostile armies invaded famous ancient city (5) In the following clue, the setter is indicating with the word leaders to have a look at a sequence of first letters. Waterway is the definition, westbound tells us the answer is moving east to west as you look at the words/letters, and p lan a cruise contains the answer: canal.īack to the top First, or initial, letter clues Plan a cruise to include westbound waterway (5) The answer is tamil.Īnother example, the answer being capped up: Look closely at “distrust a militant’s” - you find distrus t a militant’s. In a concise way, the setter is saying - in some part of the words distrust a militant’s, you will find a five-letter word for language. This is where the answer is hidden in the clue, either forwards or backwards. Again, there are plenty of indicators for a homonym clue - sounds like, echoes, speaks to, voiced, reportedly, etc. Because the setter is telling you to read out a word for man to get to a word that sounds like letters. But which one do you insert in the grid? The answer is mail. So “letters” gives us “mail” and “man” gives us “male”. “Read out” indicates this is a homonym clue - if you read out or spoke out loud a word for man, you get a word for letters. This is where words are spelt differently but sound the same. And that gives us the definition of “to be disloyal” - table. So, Board assumes motive to be disloyal (10)įrom board, we get the word “table”, which assumes, or takes on, a word that means motive (reason). This is where the clue indicates one word contained in another. An Oxford is as likely to be a shoe as a university. “High tars” may refer to sailors in crows nests, and “low tars” to submariners.
So, a flower can be a tulip or a river as well as a glacier. This answer reminds us that words do not always mean what they seem to at first. In many instances, a cryptic definition or double definition is all there is: A bouncer at the gym club (10) Answer - trampoline This may be the easiest way into a difficult clue: imagine you are solving a synonym-only crossword with no cryptic content.
This time, the rearranged words come first, then the anagram indicator and finally the definition.īack to the top The basic double definitionĪll cryptic clues can be expected to contain a definition of the answer, either at the start or end of the clue. This also has three elements, though in a different order to the above clue. So, when you fashionthe phrase a diet now, you get something that means served. (By the way, there are many, many other such anagram indicators, it is a question of getting used to spotting them). So, the setter is shaping or moulding part of this clue into another word, hence, an anagram. Why is in fashionan anagram indicator? Fashion, among other things, means to shape, form or mould. The third element, in fashion, is an anagram indicator - this is a word or phrase that tells you this clue is going to be an anagram. The second element, a diet now, forms the letters that need rearranging. In other words, this is the setter telling you what the answer is: a definition of, or means, served. The first element, served, is the bit of the clue that is the definition. There are three elements to this clue: served - a diet now - in fashion This is when a clue hints at a rearrangement of letters to get to the answer. Let us start with the cryptic clue most people understand.
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