STEP ONE
Look at both ends
The definition is almost always the first or last word or phrase. It is a plain synonym for the answer.
See it in actionOne half tells you what the answer means. The other tells you how to build it.
Cryptic crosswords look like nonsense until you know the rule: a straight definition at one end, wordplay for the same answer in the rest. Learn the handful of tricks setters use most and the clues start to give themselves away.
Original example clues, with the sources linked.
Updated
Try the clue decoderTHE SHORT ANSWER
Definition, then wordplay.
Read the clue for its parts, not its story.
The surface meaning is there to mislead you.
STEP TWO
Spot the signal word
Words like mixed, broken or wild hint at an anagram; some or in part at a hidden word; we hear at a sound-alike.
Common signals
STEP THREE
Make both halves agree
The answer must fit the definition, the wordplay and the letter count. If one fails, keep looking.
Why it worksA QUICK CLUE DECODER
Pick a trick,
see the clue unpick.
Choose one of the five most common kinds of wordplay. Each example clue was written for this page; the decoder shows the answer and how the two halves fit together.
Try to solve each clue before you read the explanation. The number in brackets is the length of the answer.
TWO MOMENTS IN CROSSWORD HISTORY
From word game
to code-breaking.
The crossword began as a simple word puzzle.
The cryptic version grew into a test of lateral thinking.
21 Dec 1913
A diamond-shaped word-cross
Arthur Wynne’s puzzle in the New York World used plain definitions, not wordplay. Cryptic clues took hold in Britain in the 1920s; Torquemada began his famous Observer series in March 1926.
THE FIRST CROSSWORD · 1913
5 of 25
Finished in under 12 minutes
In January 1942 the Daily Telegraph invited readers to beat the clock on its crossword. Five of the 25 who took part finished in time, and successful solvers were later approached by the War Office to work on codebreaking.
THE TELEGRAPH CHALLENGE · 1942
Speed comes with practice, not genius. Most regular solvers learned the same few tricks one clue at a time.
START SOLVING
Four habits
for your first grid.
Underline the ends
Mark the first and last few words of each clue. Ask which one could be a plain synonym that fits the letter count.
Learn the signal words
Keep a list as you go: words of change for anagrams, words of inclusion for containers, words of hearing for homophones.
Write the letters out
For a suspected anagram, write the letters in a circle on the margin. New patterns jump out faster than in a straight line.
Read the solution next day
Check the answers you missed and work out why each clue was fair. That is how the tricks become second nature.
CROSSWORD FACTS
Five things worth
knowing.
It started as a diamond
The first crossword, credited to Arthur Wynne, appeared in the New York World on 21 December 1913. It was shaped like a diamond and called a word-cross.
Torquemada made it cryptic
The setter Ximenes wrote that the first to use cryptic clues extensively was Torquemada, who started his Observer series in March 1926.
The Times held out until 1930
The Times began its crossword in 1930. Its first setter, Adrian Bell, went on to compile more than 4,500 puzzles for the paper.
Every clue has a definition
Ximenes described a fair clue as a definition plus a subsidiary part alluding to the letters or parts of the word. That pairing is what you solve.
Cryptic means hidden
The word comes from Greek for hidden, which is exactly what the wordplay does: it hides a second route to the answer inside an ordinary-looking sentence.
QUICK QUESTIONS
Cryptics, answered.
Short answers to the questions new solvers ask most.
What is a cryptic crossword clue?
A cryptic clue usually gives the answer twice: once as a straight definition, normally at the start or end of the clue, and once as wordplay that builds the same word from its letters. The word cryptic comes from a Greek word meaning hidden.
How do I tell the definition from the wordplay?
Check the first and last few words of the clue first. One of them is usually a plain synonym for the answer. Whatever is left should be instructions for building the answer: an anagram, a hidden word, one word inside another and so on.
What do the numbers in brackets mean?
They give the length of the answer. (6) means six letters; (3,4) means a three-letter word followed by a four-letter word. Counting the letters of a suspected anagram against this number is a quick check.
Who invented the crossword?
The first crossword is credited to Arthur Wynne, a journalist at the New York World, which printed his diamond-shaped word-cross on 21 December 1913. It had straight definition clues; cryptic clues came later, mainly in British papers.
Did solving crosswords really get people jobs at Bletchley Park?
In January 1942 the Daily Telegraph held a challenge to finish its crossword in under 12 minutes. Of 25 people who took part, five finished in time, and successful solvers were later approached by the War Office to work on codebreaking.
Sources
Where the facts come from
- Word-cross, crosswords and acrostics: the 1913 New York World puzzleLibrary of Congress
- Chapter 2: The coming of the cryptic clueXimenes on the Art of the Crossword, 1966
- Chapter 3: Crossword principlesXimenes on the Art of the Crossword, 1966
- One hundred downProspect
- Cracking the Enigma code: the Daily Telegraph’s crossword challengeGale Review
- Crosswords and cryptography: a short historyOxford University Press
A NAME WORTH SOLVING
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