Every Cryptic Crossword clue will contain a definition or key-word
describing the answer (usually at the beginning or the end), or the whole clue will be
the definition.
Lesson-1 was about ANAGRAMS or a re-arrangement of the letters. We have seen a number of
examples. Usually, Anagram clues contain words like 'broken', 'jumbled' etc. to indicate
they are anagrams.
Lesson-2 was about 'CHARADES, where the answer is broken into two or more
manageable parts and a clue is provided for each part, usually in the same order.
The elements may be defined directly or by the use of equivalents.
Lesson-3 was about 'CONTAINERS or SPLIT WORDS, which are similar
to charades, but to get the answer that fits the definition, one part of the solution goes
inside (or outside) the other, with an indicator to alert you.Again, the elements may be defined
directly or by the use of equivalents.
Lesson-4 was about DELETIONS, in which the answer is arrived at by removing one or
more letters at the begiining or end of the clue. These clues usually use flags such as
"beheaded", "unbegun", and "after initial" to signal the removal of a word's first letter(s),
and flags such as "endless" and "almost" to signal removal of a word's last letter(s).
Lesson-5 was about DOUBLE DEFINITION, in which you get two straight definitions or possibly one straight definition and a pun, both of which mean the same thing. Normally, Double Definition clues are very short.
This month, I shall cover HIDDEN WORDS. The hidden word clue is probably one of the easiest to solve if you know what you're looking at. To make up for that, the indicators that are used are often the same as CONTAINERS (Split Word) which can make it hard to tell which type you are looking at. In the hidden word clue, you can find the answer hiding in the letters of the clue. For example,
Capital city in Czechoslovakia (4)
The answer here is OSLO (Capital city) which can be found in czechOSLOvakia.
Generally, the answer will also straddle two or more words as in
Teach a chain about dance(3-3)
The indicator here is not the common "in" but "about".
The keyword is 'dance' and is hidden somewhere in 'teach a chain'. A little effort should show CHA-CHA in 'teaCH A CHAin'.
There are also some variations to watch out for. The words could be hidden backwards like DATA in 'mATADor holds back information(4)' or on the ends as SEAL in 'Close ends of SEnegAL(4)'. Other favourites are to use only every other letter like SAKE in 'odd ShAcKlEs for foreign drink(4)' or the first letters in a series of words as SANE in 'initially States Are Not Entirely lucid(4)'. In each of these cases, you will be told how they are hidden by the indicator. For these clues, you could have "holds back", "off the borders", "oddly" (referring to the letters in the odd positions) and "heads of" respectively.
As usual ten clues are given below. All the clues are any one or a combination of the six types
covered so far, viz., ANAGRAM, CHARADE, CONTAINER (SPLIT WORD), DELETION , DOUBLE DEFINITION and HIDDEN WORD. As last time,
the TYPE OF CLUE, the KEY-WORD (which is the synonym of the solution), the
COMPONENTS of the solution and the SOLUTION will be revealed to you only if you want them by
clicking on the button to the right. Get cracking....
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