That’s very helpful. Thanks.
Comment on Discussion Thread 🛸 Friday 16 May 2025
StudChud@aussie.zone 1 week agoA lot of it is less to do with general knowledge/definitions, and more wordplay.
Eg: in a clue, sometimes the phrase “caught in” or “buried in”, even “inside”, is used - it means the answer is in the clue itself. It could be an anagram of a word used in the clue, or the answer itself contained in another word. An example from the NYT:
Clue: Lover of birds imprisoned in Alcatraz\
Answer
Cat. “Cat” is the answer ‘imprisoned’ in Alcatraz, with “lover of birds” acting as a descriptor of the answer.
There’s so many more techniques like that - approaching the cryptics like a wordplay game instead of a trivia game will help with completing them! The Guardian has beginner cryptics too, so it’s easier to get into this genre of crossword!
CEOofmyhouse56@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Thornburywitch@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Best clue in a cryptic I ever came across was 'Triumph for Mrs Mop" 8/7. I had _ _ e _ _ _ n _ / _ _ c _ _ r _ in the grid already.
answer
Sweeping victory
StudChud@aussie.zone 1 week ago
That is a great clue! I’d be so proud of I made that haha it helps to know a lot of the answers are gonna be puns or punny in some way haha
Thornburywitch@aussie.zone 1 week ago
Yeah, back when I was starting doing these, I was told that a cryptic clue ALWAYS had two parts - one indicating the meaning and the other the method. Part of the puzzle was working out which was which. And to be alert for puns: a flower does not necessarily have roots in the ground - it could be water running downhill and so on.