Introduction
The cryptic crossword is like a normal crossword with a few differences. The first of these is the diagram itself. There are two types of diagrams most commonly used in cryptics. One is very similar to the conventional crossword in that it is a grid with black squares. However, there are a lot fewer words in a cryptic. Why? Because conventional crosswords have to be fully checked i.e. every letter must be used in both an across word and a down word. Roughly half of the letters in each word in a cryptic is an unch. An unch is a letter which appears in only one word whether it is across or down.
The other main difference between conventional and cryptic crosswords is the clues. Conventional puzzles have clues which consist only of a definition, although the definitions can be misleading and don't have to come straight from the dictionary. Any clue in a cryptic crossword consists of two parts. The first is a straight definition. The second is some type of wordplay whether it be anagrams or charades or hidden words. This may make it sound easier to solve except the cryptic constructor does something tricky. The two parts of the clue are placed side by side in either order, possibly with misleading punctuation. This means that you will have to decipher where the clue splits in two as well as which half is which. But that should become clearer as you progress and practice more. I am writing this article keeping in mind the daily cryptic crossword which appears in the newspaper "Hindu".
Here are some of the most popular forms of clues found in Cryptic Crosswords:-
Anagrams
The anagram is the cryptic constructor's favorite device. In this type of clue, the wordplay has a set of letters which you must rearrange in order to get the final answer. The clue will also include a word or phrase which hints that you have to rearrange the letters. Words and phrases whose sole purpose is to tell you what type of clue you are dealing with are called indicators. Sometimes it could be the word "rearrange" or maybe "is out of order". Most often the indicator only loosely suggests an anagram such as "crazy" or "wild". Why don't you try and sink your teeth into the following clue and see if you can puzzle it out.
Blow up revolutionary general (7)
The first thing you should note is the 7 found in parentheses at the end of the clue. This tells you that your answer is going to have seven letters in it. If you suspect an anagram clue, knowing how many letters you need can limit the possibilities some especially if the indicator doesn't help you figure out which side you are anagramming. In this case you are looking for a seven letters to anagram and your only option is general. The indicator here is revolutionary which tells you to reorganize the letters in the word general. Finally, blow up is the definition of the answer. You should be able to get a coherent sentence telling you exactly what to do by adding some words so the cryptic clue is really a form of telegraphese. Here's what you get for the above clue. Get a word meaning blow up from a revolutionary form of the word general. Hopefully, by now you have the final answer of ENLARGE.
Now try the following clue.
Miserable, Ma sans tea in a section of the Pacific Ocean (6,3)
Firstly, the numbers (6,3) in the bracket mean that the answer has two words - first one is of 6 letters and the second one is of 3 letters. In this clue, you will have to anagram more than one word to get the answer. The indicator here is the word miserable which tells you to anagram the letters in the words "Ma sans tea" to get a word meaning in an angry mood. Naturally, the answer is "TASMAN SEA".
Anagrams are one of the most popular set of clues among crossword makers. Also, they are pretty easy to get. All you need to do is to keep the eyes wide open. Since, they are easier to get, hence, most of the times they lay the foundation for solving the remaining clues of the crossword.
Double Definitions
The double definition clue has no real wordplay. What you get instead is two straight definitions or possibly one straight definition and a pun. These two definitions should be very different and if they are not the constructor was being lazy. The only trick here is to realize that you have two definitions and then determine where they split. Here's a very simple example which I've seen in quite a few cryptics.
Trim a tree (6)
The answer here is SPRUCE which can mean both trim and a tree. This particular clue is used especially around Christmastime because the surface sense reminds people of that time of year. The surface sense is based on what the cryptic clue would seem to say to someone who knows nothing about cryptics. In this case, it suggests someone who is decorating a Christmas tree. The ideal cryptic clue should make sense to someone who is unfamiliar with cryptics. This criterion often makes it more difficult to solve cryptic clues because you can be mislead as to the parts of speech of the words involved.
For example, look at
Tough covering (4)
It looks like tough is an adjective but when reading it as a cryptic clue you have to use the word as a noun. If you don't do that you'll never get the right answer of HOOD. Whenever you see a cryptic clue with only two words it is a pretty safe bet that you are dealing with a double definition clue.
Now try a clue with a twist.
Decline to get rid of perfume? (7)
The question mark at the end usually tells you that a pun is involved although sometimes it is placed there because it is a question when looking at the surface sense. But here it is a pun. The correct answer is DESCENT which means declineand when viewed "punnily" as DE-SCENT, to get rid of perfume.
Homophones
Homophones are words or phrases which sound exactly alike such as RAIN and REIGN. When they are used in a cryptic clue, both of them will be clued with a definition. Only one of these can be the right answer so the other one has an indicator that tells you that it only sounds like the right answer.
Take a look at
Gossipy news lodger overheard (5)
In this clue, the indicator is overheard. That's your clue telling you that the answer only sounds like a word meaning lodger but is actually defined by gossipy news. So the correct answer is RUMOR which sounds like ROOMER. In this case, you can easily tell which definition is for the answer and which for the homophone but sometimes you can't tell because the indicator is in the middle and could apply to either one. Then you have to hope that they either have a different number of letters or that you can get enough crossing words to tell which goes into the diagram.
For example,
The head of the school declared a rule (9)
Should the answer be PRINCIPAL or PRINCIPLE? You don't have enough information to tell which is the correct answer. Luckily, this doesn't happen too often but you should beware of it. There aren't that many good indicators for this type of clue so it doesn't get used all that often and when it does, you can usually pick them out of the lineup. However, there are ways to be tricky by messing with the parts of speech.
For example,
Utter confusion for 24-hour periods (4)
The word utter appears to be an adjective but it is really a verb because when you utter the word DAZE it sounds like DAYS.
Hey, I don't like these homophone clues much. They are just too weirdo at times. So, what I recommend is that look for other forms of clues first. Think the "homophone" way, when nothing else helps.
Charades
This type of clue takes its name from the party game "charades". You have to place a bunch of words down one after another and when you are done you get a new word which is the answer. A common example is DISC+ON+SO+LATE which spells DISCONSOLATE. You could have an indicator here such as "next to" or "by" but this type of clue is the only one which needs no indicators at all besides the double definitions discussed earlier. Because of the difficulty of using only words, you will find a lot of abbreviations used as parts of the charade as in
Wise guy unaccompanied by Monday (7)
The definition is wise guy and you get it by placing a word meaning unaccompanied by an abbreviation meaning Monday. Thus the answer is SOLO+MON. You can have chemical symbols such as S for "sulphur" and Roman numerals such as C for "hundred" as well. There are lots of possibilities so be forewarned.
Here's a tricky one. A tough one ... rather....
Drive rascal Parisian and American (7)
The answer here is IMP (rascal) + ET (Parisian "and") + US (American). This clue shows that foreign words are allowed occasionally although they tend to be limited to very common words like "and" and "one". Lot of French words are used some times. E.g. "LE" , "LA" , "DE" or "UN".
Quite often for a letter or for a set of letters, clues will be given as follows :-
The cryptic crossword is like a normal crossword with a few differences. The first of these is the diagram itself. There are two types of diagrams most commonly used in cryptics. One is very similar to the conventional crossword in that it is a grid with black squares. However, there are a lot fewer words in a cryptic. Why? Because conventional crosswords have to be fully checked i.e. every letter must be used in both an across word and a down word. Roughly half of the letters in each word in a cryptic is an unch. An unch is a letter which appears in only one word whether it is across or down.
The other main difference between conventional and cryptic crosswords is the clues. Conventional puzzles have clues which consist only of a definition, although the definitions can be misleading and don't have to come straight from the dictionary. Any clue in a cryptic crossword consists of two parts. The first is a straight definition. The second is some type of wordplay whether it be anagrams or charades or hidden words. This may make it sound easier to solve except the cryptic constructor does something tricky. The two parts of the clue are placed side by side in either order, possibly with misleading punctuation. This means that you will have to decipher where the clue splits in two as well as which half is which. But that should become clearer as you progress and practice more. I am writing this article keeping in mind the daily cryptic crossword which appears in the newspaper "Hindu".
Here are some of the most popular forms of clues found in Cryptic Crosswords:-
Anagrams
The anagram is the cryptic constructor's favorite device. In this type of clue, the wordplay has a set of letters which you must rearrange in order to get the final answer. The clue will also include a word or phrase which hints that you have to rearrange the letters. Words and phrases whose sole purpose is to tell you what type of clue you are dealing with are called indicators. Sometimes it could be the word "rearrange" or maybe "is out of order". Most often the indicator only loosely suggests an anagram such as "crazy" or "wild". Why don't you try and sink your teeth into the following clue and see if you can puzzle it out.
Blow up revolutionary general (7)
The first thing you should note is the 7 found in parentheses at the end of the clue. This tells you that your answer is going to have seven letters in it. If you suspect an anagram clue, knowing how many letters you need can limit the possibilities some especially if the indicator doesn't help you figure out which side you are anagramming. In this case you are looking for a seven letters to anagram and your only option is general. The indicator here is revolutionary which tells you to reorganize the letters in the word general. Finally, blow up is the definition of the answer. You should be able to get a coherent sentence telling you exactly what to do by adding some words so the cryptic clue is really a form of telegraphese. Here's what you get for the above clue. Get a word meaning blow up from a revolutionary form of the word general. Hopefully, by now you have the final answer of ENLARGE.
Now try the following clue.
Miserable, Ma sans tea in a section of the Pacific Ocean (6,3)
Firstly, the numbers (6,3) in the bracket mean that the answer has two words - first one is of 6 letters and the second one is of 3 letters. In this clue, you will have to anagram more than one word to get the answer. The indicator here is the word miserable which tells you to anagram the letters in the words "Ma sans tea" to get a word meaning in an angry mood. Naturally, the answer is "TASMAN SEA".
Anagrams are one of the most popular set of clues among crossword makers. Also, they are pretty easy to get. All you need to do is to keep the eyes wide open. Since, they are easier to get, hence, most of the times they lay the foundation for solving the remaining clues of the crossword.
Double Definitions
The double definition clue has no real wordplay. What you get instead is two straight definitions or possibly one straight definition and a pun. These two definitions should be very different and if they are not the constructor was being lazy. The only trick here is to realize that you have two definitions and then determine where they split. Here's a very simple example which I've seen in quite a few cryptics.
Trim a tree (6)
The answer here is SPRUCE which can mean both trim and a tree. This particular clue is used especially around Christmastime because the surface sense reminds people of that time of year. The surface sense is based on what the cryptic clue would seem to say to someone who knows nothing about cryptics. In this case, it suggests someone who is decorating a Christmas tree. The ideal cryptic clue should make sense to someone who is unfamiliar with cryptics. This criterion often makes it more difficult to solve cryptic clues because you can be mislead as to the parts of speech of the words involved.
For example, look at
Tough covering (4)
It looks like tough is an adjective but when reading it as a cryptic clue you have to use the word as a noun. If you don't do that you'll never get the right answer of HOOD. Whenever you see a cryptic clue with only two words it is a pretty safe bet that you are dealing with a double definition clue.
Now try a clue with a twist.
Decline to get rid of perfume? (7)
The question mark at the end usually tells you that a pun is involved although sometimes it is placed there because it is a question when looking at the surface sense. But here it is a pun. The correct answer is DESCENT which means declineand when viewed "punnily" as DE-SCENT, to get rid of perfume.
Homophones
Homophones are words or phrases which sound exactly alike such as RAIN and REIGN. When they are used in a cryptic clue, both of them will be clued with a definition. Only one of these can be the right answer so the other one has an indicator that tells you that it only sounds like the right answer.
Take a look at
Gossipy news lodger overheard (5)
In this clue, the indicator is overheard. That's your clue telling you that the answer only sounds like a word meaning lodger but is actually defined by gossipy news. So the correct answer is RUMOR which sounds like ROOMER. In this case, you can easily tell which definition is for the answer and which for the homophone but sometimes you can't tell because the indicator is in the middle and could apply to either one. Then you have to hope that they either have a different number of letters or that you can get enough crossing words to tell which goes into the diagram.
For example,
The head of the school declared a rule (9)
Should the answer be PRINCIPAL or PRINCIPLE? You don't have enough information to tell which is the correct answer. Luckily, this doesn't happen too often but you should beware of it. There aren't that many good indicators for this type of clue so it doesn't get used all that often and when it does, you can usually pick them out of the lineup. However, there are ways to be tricky by messing with the parts of speech.
For example,
Utter confusion for 24-hour periods (4)
The word utter appears to be an adjective but it is really a verb because when you utter the word DAZE it sounds like DAYS.
Hey, I don't like these homophone clues much. They are just too weirdo at times. So, what I recommend is that look for other forms of clues first. Think the "homophone" way, when nothing else helps.
Charades
This type of clue takes its name from the party game "charades". You have to place a bunch of words down one after another and when you are done you get a new word which is the answer. A common example is DISC+ON+SO+LATE which spells DISCONSOLATE. You could have an indicator here such as "next to" or "by" but this type of clue is the only one which needs no indicators at all besides the double definitions discussed earlier. Because of the difficulty of using only words, you will find a lot of abbreviations used as parts of the charade as in
Wise guy unaccompanied by Monday (7)
The definition is wise guy and you get it by placing a word meaning unaccompanied by an abbreviation meaning Monday. Thus the answer is SOLO+MON. You can have chemical symbols such as S for "sulphur" and Roman numerals such as C for "hundred" as well. There are lots of possibilities so be forewarned.
Here's a tricky one. A tough one ... rather....
Drive rascal Parisian and American (7)
The answer here is IMP (rascal) + ET (Parisian "and") + US (American). This clue shows that foreign words are allowed occasionally although they tend to be limited to very common words like "and" and "one". Lot of French words are used some times. E.g. "LE" , "LA" , "DE" or "UN".
Quite often for a letter or for a set of letters, clues will be given as follows :-
- The word "Northern" will give the letter "N". Similarily, "Eastern" for "E". "Left" for L. "Right" for R.
- To indicate the letters 'N' and 'S' together in the answer, the clue will have the word "Poles". That implies the magnetic poles - North and South.
- To denote letters like 'SA" , the clue can have a mention of the words "South American" or "South American". E.g. to denote the letters 'CR', the cryptic setter can mention the words "Costa Rican" in the clue.
Charades are common clues. But, one tends to get them with practice. So, keep trying :)
Containers
In a container clue, one word is placed completely inside another such as NOW is in the word KING in K(NOW)ING. The indicators will hint at some kind of containment such as "wrapping" or "grasps" or "gets into". Just follow the directions and you'll be fine.
Prong of a fork snares passion fruit (9)
This one is tricky because it forces you to break the clue in the middle of the phrase passion fruit. The definition part is just fruit while the cryptic half tells you that a word meaning prong of a fork takes a word meaning passion inside to get T(ANGER)INE. The answer to the next clue is two words. The first is four letters long and the second one has six. In the enumeration, words are separated by commas.
Filled with fear, an underground worker calls for a telepath (4,6)
You may notice that the grammar as a cryptic clue is somewhat odd. What the clue is telling you to do is to fill a word meaning an underground worker with a word meaning fear. If you have the right words, you get MIN(DREAD)ER which is a telepath.
Reversals
In a reversal clue, the wordplay half of the clue will consist of a definition of the word you get by reversing the order of the letters in the answer as well as an indicator. Such pairs include DEVIL and LIVED as well as OPRAH and HARPO. The indicator could be something like "retreat" or "going the wrong way" or "on the way back". Sometimes the indicator will refer to whether you have an across or a down clue. "Heading west" only works in an across clue and "going up" can only refer to a down clue.
How well can you do with the following clue?
Form of ID sentry returned (7)
Returned is the indicator which tells you to reverse a word meaning sentry to get a form of ID. This should lead you to the correct answer of NAMETAG which is GATEMAN in reverse.
Now try the following down clue:
Material for blue jeans is dug up (5)
Since this is a down clue, using up is legal. This would not work for an across clue. Now, dug is a definition of MINED and material for blue jeans is DENIM which is the correct answer.
Hidden Words
The hidden word clue is probably one of the easiest to solve if you know what you're looking at. To make up for that, the indicators that are used are often the same as containers which can make it hard to tell which type you are looking at. In the hidden word clue, you can find the answer hiding in the letters of the clue.
For example,
Capital city in Czechoslovakia (4)
The answer here is OSLO which can be found inczechOSLOvakia. Keep in mind that there should be no words which are not used in either the definition or in hiding the final answer. Having extraneous words like that is extremely unfair and thus avoided.
It is also possible that the answer will straddle two or more words as in
Teach a chain gang about dancing (3-6)
The indicator here is not the common "in" but about this time. The answer means dancing and is hidden somewhere in teach a chain gang. A little effort should show CHA-CHAING in teaCH A CHAIN Gang. There are also some variations to watch out for. The words could be hidden backwards like DATA in mATADor or on the ends as SEAL in SEnegAL. Other favorites are to use only every other letter like SAKE in ShAcKlEs or the first letters in a series of words as SANE in State Are Not Entirely. In each of these cases, you will be told how they are hidden by the indicator. For these clues, you could have "holds back", "off the borders", "oddly" (referring to the letters in the odd positions) and "heads of" respectively.
Deletions
This is the opposite of a container. Instead of placing words inside of other words, you have to remove letters from them. These letters could be at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. Each of these cases usually has a different type of indicator.
For example,
Start off killing for amusement (8)
The indicator is start off so you remove the first letter of a word meaning killing to get a word meaning amusement. In other words, SLAUGHTER without its first letter is LAUGHTER, which you would place into the grid.
Now here's one where you remove the final letter.
Hoffman the actor is doing housework endlessly (6)
You should recognize Hoffman the actorimmediately as being DUSTIN. But how does this relate to the rest of the clue? Well, you write down doing housework or DUSTING endlessly or without the final letter.
If the missing letter was in the middle, you could have
Heartless jailer brings you a bird (6)
Heartless tells you to remove the letter in the exact center of TURNKEY (jailer) to get TURKEY (a bird). But you don't always have to remove the beginning, end or exact middle. If you had "missing hydrogren", it could be telling you to remove an H from where it appeared as in from CHART to get CART.
It is also possible to remove the ends of a word as in
Spy edges away from "Red" (5)
where you take away letters from both sides of (edges away from) MAGENTA (red) to get AGENT (spy).
Combining Different Types of Wordplay
Now that you've seen what kinds of things to expect in a cryptic, it is time to get a little more complicated. It is very hard to create a good-sized cryptic using only words which can be used as one of the types above so we need to have some way of expanding our choices. The way that it is done is by using more than one type of wordplay in the clue. This will make it more complicated but you'll still have your indicators to tell you what to do.
Look at
Vampire bats left early (8)
This is a combination of anagram and charade. If you've been paying attention, you might realize that bats is telling you to anagram the letters in VAMPIRE. But then you have an L to add (an abbreviation for left). After a little bit of work you should get PRIMEVA+L which means early. Anagrams and charades are very useful tools in creating these complex clues and appear with some frequency.
Another example with only one of these types is
Shame about New Orleans character (11)
Shame defines the word PITY and you are told to put it aboutan anagram of ORLEANS (New Orleans) to get P(ERSONAL)ITY which is defined by character.
&lits.
In an &lit. clue both parts of a clue, the definition and the wordplay, are really one and the same. You read the clue once to get a definition and then you have to go back and read it again to get the wordplay.
A simple example using an anagram is
Terribly angered! (7)
Notice the exclamation point which is used to signal the &lit. But just because you see an exclamation point doesn't mean that you have an &lit. Sometimes the exclamation point is used for a better surface sense. Now terribly angered tells you to rearrange the letters in ANGERED to get a word which means terribly angered or ENRAGED. These types of clues don't appear all that often because they are difficult to create and will often have a very weak definition because of this.
Miscellaneous
Sometimes a constructor needs a single letter for some wordplay or maybe even a couple of letters. How do you get these letters? By taking them as parts of words. L might be a "head of lettuce" and Y the "Fourth of July" if you needed only those letters. To get more than one letter, try PA as "pair of pants" or SPA as "three of spades". Most clues like this take the letters from the beginning of the word unless they tell you otherwise. So "half moon" usually refers to MO although some might use it for ON. Similar to one of the types used in hidden words, "crust of rye" could be RE. That is, the outside letters of the word RYE.
Finally.....
Well, as some wise man said.... "Rome was not built in a day". So, its not that by reading this article you'll become a WIZ in solving crosswords in a single day. So, keep trying. For starters - you guys should pick up the previous day's crossword and also the present day's crossword column which has the solutions to previous day's. Study the solutions and try to get understand the method by which a clue is cracked. Keep on doing this for a couple of weeks and then see the big difference. Be patient, keep your head open to ideas .... And soon you'll come to know that solving cryptic crosswords is a wonderful pastime.
So, WELCOME to this new exciting pastime..
ENJOY !!!!!
∞ asankhya∞
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