What are Cryptic Crosswords?

Cryptic Crossword Primer

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Basics

• A cryptic clue is always followed by its solution's length, in parentheses:

        Buzzing bicycle was blue (5)  = MOPED
    Pale Peter trembling in part of orchard (5,4)  = APPLE TREE

• Whereas clues in plain (American) crosswords are simple definitions or synonyms of their solutions --

                   Mark  = ANNOTATE
    Showed green thumb  = GARDENED

-- cryptic clues are divided in half. Half of the clue is a "straight" definition; the other half is a recipe for constructing the answer through wordplay.

        Mark and Ann ring London gallery (8)  = ANNOTATE
 [definition]    |  [wordplay]

     Deranged lunatic showed green thumb (8)  = GARDENED
[wordplay]  | [definition]

(We will see presently how to decipher wordplay.) Since a cryptic clue offers two complete routes to its solution, it might appear a priori easier than its plain cousin. So it would be, were it not for the fact that


1. It is rarely obvious where the cryptic clue cleaves, or which half serves which function;
2. The "straight definitions" of cyptic clues are often vaguer and more tenuous than plain-crossword definitions. "Bush", for example, would be an execrably obscure clue for TOPIARY in a plain crossword, but the additional information encoded into I pray to burning bush (7) makes that a fair cryptic clue for the same word.

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Types of wordplay

Anagrams

The wordplay half of I pray to burning bush (7), "I pray to burning", is typical of anagrams, or rearrangements of letters. It gives both the letters to be used, I PRAY TO, and an anagram flag ("burning"), a signal to rearrange them. While there is no fixed canon of possible anagram flags, they always suggest motion, change, violence, decay, unsteadiness, or some related concept. "Burning" suggests that the letters of "I pray to" are to be agitated to form a (near-)synonym of "bush", TOPIARY.

We've seen another instance of anagrams in Deranged lunatic showed green thumb (8). At first glance, both "Deranged" and "lunatic" seem plausible as anagram flags. A useful procedure for testing a possible anagram flag is this:

A likely anagram flag will be adjacent to word(s) with the same number of letters as the solution.

However creatively you derange the letters in "lunatic", you will never come up with an eight-letter word. But by making the letters of "deranged" lunatic, you can arrive at GARDENED, the solution. Here are some additional examples:

Sphere scattered venereal disease (6) = HERPES
SPHERE [rearranged] | [definition]

Broken shelf holds meat (5) = FLESH
[rearranged] SHELF | [def.]

Witty Mr. Danto mugged (7) = MORDANT
[def.] | MR. DANTO [rearranged]

Charades

Popular as anagrams are in cryptic crosswords, charades are even more common. Here a word is deconstructed into two or more elements:

     Mark and Ann ring London gallery (8)  = ANNOTATE
    [def.] |  ANN   O       TATE

Note the various methods of encoding elements: "ANN" is provided explicitly, "ring" evokes the circular letter "O", and "London gallery" defines "TATE". Further more-or-less typical examples of charades:

                     Artist's "Burning Hog" hit her (12)  = LITHOGRAPHER
                    [def.] |     LIT   HOG  RAP HER

     Male and female thespians to recreate bad guys (11)  = MALEFACTORS
     MALE       F     ACTORS        |     [definition]

                  Art supplies some of bassoon reeds (7)  = BRUSHES
                 [definition] |       B        RUSHES

Common Charade Tricks

The wordplay in these examples may seem quite ... well, cryptic; but a little practice will reveal recurring schemes for encoding letters. For example:

"Head of ...", "piece of ...", "bit of ..." etc.:

Take first letter, as in "some of bassoon" = B.

"Back of ...", etc.:

Take last letter, as in "back of bus" = S.

"North", "South", "East", "West", "Left", "Right":

N, S, E, W, L, R respectively.

"Small", "Medium", "Large", "Tall":

S, M, L, T respectively.

Containers

Containers are much like charades, but they indicate that some element is supposed to be inserted into another. "Inside of", "outside of", "in", "about", "around", "through", and "dividing" are just some possible flags of a container clue.

     Boring article in "Country Home" (7)  = VANILLA
    [def.] | AN   [inside] VILLA

           Put off  about vulgar rape (8)  = DEFLOWER
            DEFER [around] LOW  | [def.]

Reversals

Reversals are flagged by such phrases as "spun around", "returned", and "looking back":

      Crow overturned clothing (4)  = BRAG
   [def.] | [reversed] GARB

(Note that this could just as easily define GARB; intersecting clues on the puzzle grid would have to determine the right answer.) Since so few English words admit viable mirror images, reversals are often combined with containers or charades, as in:

      Nerd keeps Elvis's head in inverted barrel (4)  = GEEK
     [def.]  |         E     [in reversed] KEG

Across-clues will sometimes use "left" or "towards west" as reversal flags, and Down-clues "up", "lifting", "growing", etc.



Hidden words

Hidden word clues use many of the same flags as containers -- "inside", "containing", and so on -- but indicate that the solution is contained in consecutive letters of the clue, staring the solver in the face.

Government ruthlessly suppresses the real story (5) = TRUTH
T RUTH [hides] | [definition]

Homophones

A homophone encodes the solution in a word that sounds the same; homophone flags involve sound and speech. "Vocally", "apparently", "reportedly", and "we hear" are perennial favorites.

             Drunk cut hair, apparently (7)  = QUAFFED
            [def.]| COIFFED [homophonically]

           Noisily    snoops for trophy (5)  = PRIZE
     [homophonically] PRIES   |  [def.]

Truncations/Deletions

These clues use flags such as "beheaded", "unbegun", and "after initial" to signal the removal of a word's first letter, and flags such as "endless" and "almost" to signal removal of a word's last letter.

     Girl  from  Andean  nation   decapitated   (6)  = OLIVIA
    [def.]   |      BOLIVIA    [minus 1st letter]

                  My   wand    almost    magic  (6)  = MYSTIC
                  MY  STICK [truncated] | [def.]

Double Definitions

This category is self-explanatory.

      Ousts  bank employees    (8)  = CASHIERS
     [def.] |   [def.]

"&-Lit"

The conventional name for this category, "and-lits", comes from the traditional abbreviated explanation of these clues in newspapers' answer columns. It is short for "and literally so." Often of surpassing elegance, these clues are the trophies of cryptic crossword design.
An &-lit clue, unlike clues of all other kinds, does not split into halves; instead, the entire clue is to be read both as a straight definition and as wordplay, under the conventions sketched above. To indicate this (as well as the author's satisfaction) an exclamation point usually terminates these clues.

Modern unit of weight! (6) = NEWTON
NEW + TON

I set men on fire verbally! (7) = STEINEM
I SET MEN [anagram flag]

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Complications

The above information will suffice for most cryptic clues. The most effective method for improving one's ability is (as with all things) practice. However, crossword authors must go beyond these basic techniques if their work is to be cryptic, rather than formulaic, so there are a few more things that might usefully be noted:

• Question marks. A question mark often signals a pun, or a definition that is a (particularly big) stretch:

      East bloc  relations deteriorated? (9)  = ORIENTALS
["definition"] | RELATIONS [anagram flag]

• Combinations. Basic clue types, like anagram and container in the following example, can be combined:

     Bus driven through  scattered  rain to Utopia (7)  = NIRVANA
     VAN    [inside]   [anagram of] RAIN  | [def.]

• Other placement flags. As "driven through" in the above example indicates a container-clue, "after", "before", and so on can suggest juxtapositions:

     After six, the French get dirty (4)  = VILE
    [after] VI     LE       |  [def.]

• Miscellaneous. Clues to keep one on one's toes:

     Literary pioneer's "Ann, Otto, and Ira" -- odd characters (7)  = ANTONIA
        [definition]  |  AnN  oTtO  aNd IrA   [every other letter]

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Simplifications

Some tips for effective solving:

• The first thing to do when solving a clue is to locate its dividing point, and the second thing is to figure out which side is the straight definition. Think up some possible synonyms; see if any has the required number of letters.
• Next, consider the sort of wordplay that's going on. Write down some possible building-blocks if it's a charade clue; Write the likely letters in an amorphous blob if it's an anagram, etc. This will "prime" your brain with appropriate letters so that, if it is necessary to go back to looking for possible synonyms, it will be unconsciously focused on the most promising sections of its internal dictionary.
• Solving a cryptic clue is often pleasantly like writing rhymes: There are both semantic and syntactic requirements to be filled; one tries furiously to think in both modes at once; one becomes frustrated; when suddenly the "mot juste" appears, like an electrical arc bridging the two highly charged poles of one's brain.