What is a cryptic crossword?#

A cryptic crossword is a special type of crossword in which each clue is itself a little wordplay puzzle. Unlike a regular crossword clue, which just gives you a definition, a cryptic clue contains two paths to the same answer: a straightforward definition joined with tricky wordplay. Both parts will independently resolve to the same thing: the answer that goes in the grid.

If that sounds confusing, let’s look at an example. I’ll walk you through it.

The “surface” of the clue is the straightforward reading of the phrase. This surface gives us an impression of a Christmas carol uncannily offering pearls of wisdom. But to solve a cryptic crossword, we have to look below the surface.

We’re looking for a phrase made of a six and five letter word (the number at the end of the clue tells us the length of the answer). The definition is “Christmas carol”—that’s the straightforward part of the clue, basically a regular crossword clue. Definitions are almost always at the front or end of the clue. An additional wrinkle is that it will often not be clear where the definition ends and the wordplay begins.

Next, “uniquely” is an indicator—a word or phrase that directs you to modify adjacent fodder in some way. There are several classes of indicator that tell you to perform different modifications. In this case “uniquely” is an anagram indicator.

That tells us to anagram the adjacent fodder “lent insight”. If the clue is a recipe, fodder are ingredients—the words that get modified by indicators. Anagramming “lent insight” gives us “Silent Night”. Silent Night could have the definition “Christmas Carol”, so we can confirm that’s our answer!

If that seems tricky to you, that’s okay. It’s a totally new way of looking at crosswords where the words don’t mean what they usually mean. One important thing to keep in mind though is that none of the wordplay required is arbitrary. Every step you have to take is spelled out for you and justified by the conventions and rules of cryptic crossword solving.

There are 10 important clue types to be aware of:

1. Anagrams
2. Charades
3. Containers
4. Reversals
5. Deletions
6. Selections
7. Homophones
8. Hidden Words
9. Positioners
10. Double Definitions

Anagrams#

Anagrams are a very common kind of clue. An indicator word will clue to anagram an adjacent word or phrase. Anagram indicators can be very broad. Any word that suggests motion, destruction, alteration, confusion, uniqueness, bad behavior, or similar can be an anagram indicator.

Charades#

Charades are perhaps the most common kind of clue, and are often encountered alongside other types of clues. A charade clue is much like the party game it is named after: the answer is broken down into smaller parts, and a clue is given for each. There’s no indicator for a charade clue. They are their own tiny definition puzzle that—once solved—can be used as building blocks for the answer, or as fodder for other wordplay.

The definition here is “holiday ballet”. We can construct the answer using the charades, which are converted to synonyms. ECCENTRIC becomes NUT and SNACK becomes CRACKER.

Note the change in form of “eccentric”. In the surface it is used as an adjective, but the charade uses the noun definition of the word.

Charades can also take the form of common abbreviations or shortening. POUND could become LB, MEDIUM could become M, and so on. There are some less intuitive charades too, like QUIET becoming P (a common abbreviation of piano, a sheet music marking meaning to play quietly) or FOUR becoming IV (four in roman numerals). A frequent charade you’ll see is elements being charades of their periodic table abbreviations (GOLD becomes AU).

Containers#

Containers are a type of clue in which a word is placed inside another word. This can be clued either via one word surrounding another (with words like “around”, “about”, “surrounding”, “straddling”), or via one word being inside another (with words like “within”, “carried by”, “interrupting”, “inwardly”). This type of clue is commonly combined with charades.

Reversals#

Reversals are a self explanatory kind of clue where a word or phrase is read backwards. Indicators for a reversal suggest changing direction or retreating. Look for things like “around”, “came back”, “flipped”. Sometimes they can be directional. In a grid you might see “left” or “west” for an across clue, or “climbing”, “rising”, and “up” for a down clue.

Deletions#

Deletions remove one or more letters from fodder to create a new word. Deletion indicators will often not only indicate a removal, but also what to remove or where to remove it. For example, indicators like “headless” or “nonstarter” call to remove the first letter. “Without end” or “almost” indicate to remove the final letter. “Shelled” and “sanded edges” indicate to remove both the first and last letter, while “gutted” and “heartless” indicate to remove the middle letter or letters.

Deletions can also be even more specific and call to remove specific letters from a word.

Selections#

Selections are a natural complement to deletions. Deletions indicate to remove a word, while selections indicate to use a specific subset of a word for constructing the answer. Look for words like “head”, “face”, and “top” for the first letter, “heart” and “center” for the middle, and “tail” or “end” for the final letter. You also might see multiple letters selected, such as “alternating” and “regular” indicating to select every other letter and “oddly” or “evenly” indicating to take every odd or even letter.

Homophones#

Homophones are a fairly rare type of indicator, and usually aren’t too difficult to spot. They indicate to treat a word or phrase as spoken or heard. “TEA” might become “T”, “WHERE” might become “WEAR”, and so on. A homophone indicator will make some reference to sound, speaking, or listening. For example, “spoken”, “aloud”, “on the radio”, “reportedly”, and so on.

Hidden Words#

Hidden words can be some of the easiest wordplay devices to spot, but can be maddening if you miss them. A hidden words indicator tells you to look for a word or phrase hidden in plain sight, spanning across a phrase of fodder. The indicator will make a reference to hiding (“conceals”, “screens”, “disguises”), or a more general reference to containment (“partly”, “involved in”, “piece of”, “held by”).

Positioners#

While almost never used alone, positioners are a powerful tool for constructors to improve the surface of their clues. The recipe of wordplay is always done in order, left to right. However, a positioner indicator can signal to rearrange the outcome of some wordplay, opening up new possible sentence structures and solutions. Positioners can be any word that implies sequence (“first”, “then”, “at last”, “finally”) or relative position (“before”, “following”, “on top of”, “under”).

Double Definition#

Double definition clues break the mold by eschewing the standard framework of fodder and indicators for—you guessed it—two definitions!

Additional Notes#

You may have noticed the occasional word that wasn’t highlighted and didn’t seem to contribute to the solving recipe or the definition. These are known as connectors or link words and are added between the wordplay and the definition to improve the flow and appearance of the surface. Link words can’t just be any old word, they must imply some sort of construction or equivalence:

• Equality: is, being, and, or, ’s (apostrophe s)
• Creation: for, from, of, by, with, makes, becomes, gets, to, into, leads to, gives
• Composition: has, in, with, where

Just like connectors, punctuation within a clue is usually there to improve the surface and has no effect on the solve. Watch out for an intentionally deceptive surface that uses punctuation to make you pass over a potential solution!

Sometimes, an indicator might operate on two different pieces of fodder. A connecting word like “and” can be added to make this more clear.

Conclusion

You should now be ready to start solving cryptic crosswords! I recommend trying the beginner crossword on this site to help you get your feet wet. Once you solve that, check out other publications such as Minute Cryptic, the New Yorker, and the Guardian.