![]() ![]() ![]() The question mark suggests there’s something punny going on in the clue. For example, TANGENT can be broken into TAN GENT: Touching beach bum? (7) Sometimes the answer can be divided into pieces and clued as a phrase. The clue tells you that ALLY (“friend”) follows TOT (“child”) to make the answer TOTALLY (“completely”). The pieces may also be clued out of order, with some instruction on how to put them together: Friend follows child completely (7) Pieces of a charade are usually clued by synonyms, but can be given explicitly (as THE in the example above). The answer BOTHERING (“interrupting”) is made of BO (“Ms. Charades may also have more than two parts: Interrupting Ms. The answer TARGETS (“goals”) can be broken into TAR (“sailor”) and GETS (“attains”). In the parlor game of charades, words are acted out in pieces similarly, some cryptic answers can be broken into smaller words that are clued individually: Sailor attains goals (7) Hints for spotting this type: Look for a word or phrase suggesting mixing, and a word or group of consecutive words with the same number of letters as the answer. “Model” looks like a noun here, but it’s actually an imperative verb, telling you to model the letters of the phrase “in a studio” to get AUDITIONS (“tries out for part”). The answer TARANTINO (“Pulp Fiction director”) comes from the snarled letters of “Tarnation.” Here’s another: Model in a studio tries out for part (9) For example: “Tarnation!” snarled Pulp Fiction director (9) The rearranged letters are always immediately preceded or followed by a word or phrase that suggests the mixing, such as wild, drunk, repair, or in a muddle. In an anagram clue, the wordplay half actually gives all the letters of the answer, albeit in mixed order. Here are the eight common methods by which hints are given via wordplay, and hints for spotting them: For example, the word putter in a clue may appear to refer to a golf club but actually mean dawdle or even one who puts.Ĭryptic clues are followed by a number or numbers in parentheses indicating the length of the answer: (5) means it’s a five-letter word, while (2,3,4) indicates a three-word phrase like “in the know.” Also, both parts may contain words that appear on the surface to mean something different from what they actually indicate. But the devious creators cleverly join the two halves of the clue in ways that make it hard to tell them apart. With two routes to the answer, you might expect cryptic clues to be easier to solve than standard crossword clues. Either half may come first, but there will always be a point at which the clue can be divided into these two parts. Every cryptic clue has two parts: a definition of the answer and an indication of the answer’s literal makeup through wordplay.
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