How does cryptic crossword work

John Henderson has been setting crosswords for the national press since , and has been a solver for a few years longer.

He won The Times Crossword Championship in and also holds the Championship record for the fastest solve of a Times puzzle under 3 minutes. Easy — WREN! But hang on, it could be LARK. Or SWAN. So in a cryptic clue there are usually two ways of arriving at the answer, not just one. So how do I start to do cryptic crosswords? Like most skills in life, you need a teacher. This is the fun way to learn, because novice or expert, setter or solver, teacher or learner, crosswords always bring people together.

Maybe wearing? Look at the number of letters. Ten-letter solutions are longer than five-letter solutions. I know it sounds obvious, but it should shape your thinking. A word clue for a three-letter solution should alert you to something. So should a question mark at the end of a clue.

A question mark means the setter is not quite playing by the rules. Solve the damn thing. Yes, well, that's all very well I hear you cry — so let's return to the two clues. No more. Made up of? Meaning, no more. That said, you do need to pay attention when you see exclamation marks or question marks. A question mark often means that you have a clue which demands particular lateral thought, or a quirky interpretation of the words.

At the same time, a pun may be involved. An exclamation mark may denote that something needs particular attention. Finally, do pay attention to every word in the clue, since the setter has placed each one there to have some significance, even if you may find some which are there just so that the clue makes sense grammatically.

That also means paying attention to different tenses. So if definition terminates in —ing or —ed, or is a plural, the chances are that the solution will take the same form.

Be patient and persevere, and you will gradually find that you can complete more and more clues and more and more puzzles unaided. All Rights Reserved. Optimisation by SEO Sheffield. The Crossword Solver is designed to help users to find the missing answers to their crossword puzzles. The system can solve single or multiple word clues and can deal with many plurals.

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy. Method 4. Insert words inside of other words to solve container clues. Container clues require inserting either letters or words inside of another to form a new word, which will hint at your answer. As always the words to be combined will be located in the wordplay section of your clue. Because inserting "me" into "last" doesn't yield any immediate results, you'll need to think in terms of synonyms and abbreviations.

Spell words backward when working with reversal clues. These words, which indicate direction, often signify that the answer to your clue will involve spelling a word backward, or in reverse. Wet duck in fog is the cryptic clue. The answer is moist. Please explain why this is the answer? Duck is 0 in cricket. He went for a duck. Not Helpful 8 Helpful Choose an answer first.

Find a synonym for the word. Choose a cryptic method for the clue to be solved. Find similar definitions for the words. Polish the clue. Look for any logical mistakes. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 6. This is the cryptic clue I want to know the answer. This is a clue for "ORAL. And "oral" means "of the mouth.

Not Helpful 1 Helpful 3. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Regardless of the clue device used, you will need to know common synonyms. Keeping a thesaurus handy as you work to help jog your brain! Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0.