Solving The Nation's Cryptic Crosswords
The puzzles in The Nation are part of a long tradition known as cryptic crosswords, which use a style of clueing more dependent on wit and wordplay than on pure knowledge. These clues can seem daunting at first glance, but the underlying principles are fairly simple. This article offers a basic guide to solving cryptics.
About the Author
Henri Picciotto
Joshua Kosman
Every cryptic clue appears to be a (somewhat) sensible phrase or sentence. In reality, however, it has two separate parts. One is a definition, like those in a standard crossword puzzle; the other part uses some form of wordplay to steer you to the intended answer. These two parts provide independent indications of the same answer. Either part may come first in the clue. Sometimes a word or two, suggesting how the two parts work together, may come in between; alternatively, the definition and wordplay may simply occur side by side. In any case, they will not generally overlap or intermingle.
This means that every clue either begins or ends with a definition of the answer, but it’s up to you to find the break between the definition and the wordplay. We will try to challenge you with clues whose surface meaning puts you off the scent—for example, with a clue whose parts split in the middle of a common two-word phrase, or by seeming to use a word as a verb that is really meant as a noun. We may also use punctuation in whatever manner seems most likely to deceive, so remember to ignore punctuation in clues.
In each puzzle, we hope to have clues with a wide range of difficulty, and answers from a wide range of sources ranging from everyday language to any branch of human knowledge. Our primary goal is to entertain you, but we also hope to expand your vocabulary and perhaps get you to look at the English language a little differently. And although the rules outlined here will almost always be in force, we reserve the right to tweak, bend or even break them as the antic muse dictates.
Here is a tour of the common types of wordplay, along with hints on how to spot them. The number in parentheses following a clue tells you how many letters are in the clue answer.
1. Anagrams
Probably the most common cryptic clueing technique is to form the answer by rearranging the letters in a word or group of words as they appear in the clue—making, for instance, PATERNAL or PARENTAL from PRENATAL. Many words can signal an anagram: among them are anything suggesting disorderly, misshapen, drunk, crazy, or simply bad or wrong—also repaired, fixed, shuffled, in motion, and so on. For example:
Inebriated pirates travel about (7)
The wordplay, “inebriated pirates”, tells you to find an anagram of PIRATES that means “travel about.” The answer is TRAIPSE.
2. Charades
An answer can be broken down into two or more words that appear in succession; for example, CONSUMMATE is made up of CON, SUM, and MATE. We may simply list these words, or their synonyms, in order, in the clue, or we may join them by words like at, by, near, before, after; or (in Down clues) on, over, or beneath. For example:
Growth on the face must be sore (8)
The answer, MUSTACHE, joins MUST and ACHE (“be sore”).
3. Containers
One word is placed within the letters of another word; in COURTHOUSE, for instance, THOU is contained within COURSE. This technique is signaled by such words as inside, holding, swallowing, within (and its deceptive opposite, without), and around. For example:
Discovered calf in grass (8)
Here the word VEAL (clued by “calf”) is in REED (“grass”) to make REVEALED, defined by “discovered.”
4. Reversals
An answer is identified as another word read in reverse—as, for instance, TIMER and REMIT. This kind of clue is signaled by such hints as backwards, returning, heading west, from right to left, or (in Down clues) upward or rising. For example:
Spies bring silverware back (6)
The clue tells you to bring SPOONS (“silverware”) back to get the answer SNOOPS (“spies”).
5. Homophones
Words that sound the same but are spelled differently, like THROUGH and THREW, can be the basis of a clue. Look for indicators like spoken, aloud, or they say. For example:
Shakespeare, I hear, is excluded (6)
When you hear BARD (“Shakespeare”), you get the answer, BARRED (“excluded”).
6. Deletions
Some answers are formed by deleting a letter or group of letters from another word—removing the beginning of ISLANDER, for instance, leaves SLANDER. The wordplay may indicate the position of the letter to be deleted with words like beheaded, endlessly, or (in a Down clue) topless; or it may specify a particular letter or letters to be omitted. An example:
Pins: superfluous without an end (7)
NEEDLES is NEEDLESS (“superfluous”) without its final letter.
7. Double Definitions
Perhaps the simplest type of wordplay provides a second definition of the answer, often in an unrelated sense. For example:
Holler “Author!” (6)
The answer is BELLOW.
The second definition can be a punning or whimsical one; by convention, such clues are flagged with a question mark. For example:
Oinking tendency? (8)
The answer, PENCHANT, is clued normally by “tendency,” and punningly, as PEN CHANT, by “oinking.”
8. Hidden Words
In this type, the answer is printed explicitly in the clue, but camouflaged within another word or other words; look for indicators like seen in, running through, or in part. For example:
Cheese stored in Baroque fortress (9)
The answer, ROQUEFORT, is literally stored in the words BAROQUE FORTRESS.
9. Miscellaneous Techniques
These examples present cryptic clueing techniques in their pure form. In practice, these types of clues are often combined. For example, a clue may ask you to contain an anagrammed word within another word, or to read a hidden word in reverse.
Another complication: clues often involve individual letters or strings of letters that are not words. So be on the lookout for Roman numerals, compass points, and common abbreviations—left and right indicating L and R, for instance. There are also more cryptic ways to indicate parts of words. For example, “The Fourth of July” can mean the letter Y (the fourth letter in the word JULY).
10. & lit.
There will generally be a “straight” definition as well as tricky wordplay to guide you to the clue answer, but sometimes the entire clue is both the definition and the wordplay. For example:
Terribly evil! (4)
The answer, VILE, is defined by the entire clue. But the clue serves simultaneously as the wordplay, indicating that the answer is EVIL anagrammed. This is known as an & lit. clue (“and literally so”—the term goes back to cryptic crosswords’ British roots). Conventionally, it is marked with an exclamation point, though that rule is far from iron-clad.
