BLOGS BY TOPIC▼
BLOGS BY AUTHOR▼
BLOGS BY YEAR▼
Cryptic crossword clues can be ingenious and witty, as this blog tries to explain. The blog tries to convey this owl's passion for the genre, but also to give a mini-tutorial on how cryptic crosswords clues are constructed.
Posted by Andy Brown on 26 May 2020
You need a minimum screen resolution of about 700 pixels width to see our blogs. This is because they contain diagrams and tables which would not be viewable easily on a mobile phone or small laptop. Please use a larger tablet, notebook or desktop computer, or change your screen resolution settings.
&Lit clues
If you've never heard of the word &Lit before, don't worry - as far as I know it's exclusive to cryptic crosswords.
A normal clue consists of a definition and the wordplay to define it. So for example you could (and someone did) clue POMPADOUR as:
A barnet is Cockney rhyming slang for a hairstyle, a pompadour involves wearing one's hair up, and if you spill the letters of MOP UP ROAD you get POMPADOUR.
The crucial thing about this sort of clue is that it contains a definition and wordplay, but the two things are separate. In an &Lit clue, the clue provides not only the wordplay but also the definition.
Some examples of &Lit clues follow (as always taken from the last two and a half years of Times crossword clues).
Diet
The clue here is:
If you stop heading for takeaways, you're certainly dieting. But equally:
- To stop is to DIE; and
- The first letter (or heading) of TAKEAWAYS is the letter T.
Space cadet
This clue was:
A space cadet is slang for someone who's a bit strange, but it's also - conveniently - an anagram of ACCEPTED AS (that is, the letters when a bit crazy).
Spondulix
Very nearly my winner for this category was this clue:
The Roman numeral for fifty is L. If you change the letters SIX POUNDS L you get SPONDULIX, but this slang word for money could easily describe £6.50 in loose change.
The Winner: Cognitive dissonance
I've chosen as the winner for this category the following clue:
If you are suffering from cognitive dissonance, you may be unable to give decisions; but CANNOT GIVE DECISIONS is also, unbelievably, an anagram of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE!