Cryptic crosswords are a special kind of crossword puzzle that incorporate wordplay and lateral thinking into their clues, making them challenging and even inaccessible to most solvers. Take, for example, this cryptic clue:
"Concussed German is stable (6)"
In reality, this clue has nothing to do with concussions, Germans or being stable! The answer is MANGER, and this is how it works. In most cryptic crosswords the clues follow a basic structure: one part of the clue is called the definition and functions as you would expect a normal crossword clue to, defining the entry that goes in the grid. The rest of the clue is called the wordplay and provides a second way of arriving at the same entry! The hardest thing to learn when solving cryptic clues is (almost always) to *not* read the wordplay portion as "normal" text. Either the wordplay or the definition can come first in the clue, and the point separating them can be anywhere. The very first thing you should try to do with any cryptic clue is to identify which end is the definition and where the wordplay separation occurs. In this case of our concussed German, the first three words are the wordplay and the last word is the definition. The answer, clued by the definition "stable", is MANGER. The wordplay is an ANAGRAM clue, with the word "concussed" signifying an anagram and the word "German" being what is anagrammed. This clue is very tricky because it's "surface read", or what it *seems* to say if taken at face value, is grammatically sound and implies a different meaning of "stable" entirely.
Here are some common forms of wordplay used in cryptic clues, with examples:
ANAGRAM - the wordplay will contain a hint like "confused", "wild", disturbed", "bad", etc and the rest of the wordplay (which could be multiple words!) will be anagrammed to make an answer that matches the definition. See the example above.
DOUBLE MEANING - the definition and the wordplay clue two different meanings of the answer word. For instance: "Correct privilege (5)" - Both "correct" and "privilege" clue the answer RIGHT. With these clues it usually doesn't really matter which end is the definition and which is the wordplay.
REVERSAL - the wordplay will contain a hint such as "reversed", "on end", "climbing", etc and the rest of the wordplay will need to be reversed to make an answer that matches the definition. For instance: "Trams back up quick (5)" clues SMART. The definition is "quick", and the wordplay is "Trams back up".
HIDDEN ANSWER - the wordplay will have a word or series of words that literally contain the answer entry, usually hinted by "conceal", "carry", etc. For instance: "Those ventriloquists hide a number of sins (5)" clues SEVEN. The definition is "a number of sins" and the wordplay is "Tho(SE VEN)triloquists hide".
HOMOPHONE - the wordplay will contain a hint like "reportedly", "aloud", etc and will clue a homophone of the entry clued by the definition. For instance: "Odor was transmitted, we heard (5)" clues SCENT. The definition is "Odor" and the wordplay is "was transmitted (SENT), we heard".
Now try to solve these four clues. All answers are caching-related, and the type of wordplay used is given. Answers and explanations are in white text.
- "Volkswagens carrying trade items (4)" HIDDEN ANSWER Answer: SWAG Explanation: definition = "trade items", "volkSWAGens" is "carrying" SWAG.
- "Money reportedly in hidden stash (5)" HOMOPHONE Answer: CACHE Explanation: definition = "hidden stash", "reportedly" hints at homophone; "money" clues CASH.
- "OCD hobbyist confused Coach Gere (9)" ANAGRAM Answer: GEOCACHER Explanation: definition = "OCD hobbyist", "confused" hints anagramming, "Coach Gere" anagrams to GEOCACHER
- "Ah, conic egg scrambled GPS activity (10)" ANAGRAM Answer: GEOCACHING Explanation: definition = "GPS activity", "scrambled" hints anagramming, "ah, conic egg" anagrams to GEOCACHING
Did you figure them all out? You have enough information about cryptic clues to answer this puzzle, and thus learn where the cache is. Are you ready? Enter the answer to this cryptic clue into Certitude:
- "Toucans were concealing puzzle solution (6)"
Now go get the cache!
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.