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Alternative title: Cryptic Division 1: Never Give Up

This is a word division puzzle which uses cryptic clues. If you're unfamiliar with either or both of those, you can click the associated link.

In order to solve the alphametic, you'll first need to fill in the dividend, divisor, and quotient by solving the cryptic clues. I've left the enumerations off to provide a bit of extra challenge. Once you fill those in, the puzzle should be solvable with only arithmetic and logic. The solution is a 10-letter word or phrase found by ordering the letters from 0 through 9. A complete answer should provide this solution along with explanations of the cryptic clues and your path through the alphametic.

As always, I've created an interactive version that will autofill from the grid to the clues and vice versa. Have fun!

Clues:

Response initiated primarily within Stack Exchange, ultimately to get rid of bits of AI content
Dismiss and ignore longtime leadership in chat platform
Broke regular pattern after putting information first, leading to anger

Accessible version:

        ???
     ------
????|??????
     SACK
     ----
      ILEKE
      ITCTY
      -----
       ISTY
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    $\begingroup$ maybe posting a solidarity puzzle that's all about "division" wasn't the best move but I hope you'll all forgive me for being ever so slightly off theme here :) $\endgroup$
    – juicifer
    Jun 13 at 16:33

1 Answer 1

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I have the first two words as

STRIKE by putting RI into STACK E and deleting AC

SACK as S(L)ACK

This means the quotient is

10_ $\quad \quad \quad$ Without solving the clue "leading to anger" made me think of IRE and IRK, both using letters we have already. Because IRK leads to squaring K in the division and looked like a path in I tried that first successfully. As Jafe says we take the RK as alternate letters of broke and put them after I for information.

To solve the division

Plugging in the $10$ gives $R=0, I=1$. Then from the division $K \cdot K$ ends in $Y$, $2Y$ ends in $E$ and $E+K$ ends in $1$. Just trying the possibilities for $K$ gave $K=3, Y=9, E=8$ and the rest falls apart. Finally we have the solution as RICK ASTLEY

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    $\begingroup$ did you make a typo in your last spoiler? because if not then you might be making a logical error that would prevent you from finding the solution $\endgroup$
    – juicifer
    Jun 14 at 19:47
  • $\begingroup$ Should be 10_ instead of 1_0, no? $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jun 14 at 22:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Jafe: yes, that is correct. It wasn't a typo but an oversight. I'll try some more. Thanks. $\endgroup$
    – Ross Millikan
    Jun 14 at 23:16
  • $\begingroup$ there you go! if you can add in the wordplay for the quotient clue I'll give you the checkmark $\endgroup$
    – juicifer
    Jun 15 at 1:06
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    $\begingroup$ I think the missing wordplay is rot13(rirel frpbaq yrggre bs oEbXr sbyybjvat V (vasbezngvba, nf va na vasb qrfx fvta)). $\endgroup$
    – Jafe
    Jun 15 at 6:41

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