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Four-words:
My first is indivisible, but not really.
My second is a cloak worn by men, but in ancient Rome.
My third is a cruel wicked person, but not a human.
My fourth is about 20 quires, but in reverse.

I was not allowed a very short title for this puzzle, but I was able to add a clue to make it cross the 15-letters-minimum limit for titles.

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  • $\begingroup$ Jigsaw puzzle tag? Hmm... $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 22, 2015 at 10:45
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    $\begingroup$ Great puzzle! That tag together with the title told me what sort of puzzle it was, and having found 2 and 4, I then quickly got 1 and 3. $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 22, 2015 at 10:55
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor , thanks !! Maybe I have to make it a little tougher for quick solvers like you eg by removing the jigsaw tag !! $\endgroup$
    – Prem
    May 22, 2015 at 12:53

2 Answers 2

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My first is indivisible, but not really.

The word ATOM means "indivisible" in ancient Greek, but atoms aren't really indivisible since they have protons, neutrons, quarks, etc. inside them.

My second is a cloak worn by men, but in ancient Rome.

A TOGA

is the answer there.

My third is a cruel wicked person, but not a human.

An OGRE.

My fourth is about 20 quires, but in reverse.

20 quires

form a ream, so the answer to this is MAER.

And the full answer is:

A T O M
T O G A
O G R E
M A E R

Lovely puzzle!

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 , & thanks for the DOUBLE compliment ("Lovely puzzle!" & making a new puzzle inspired by this) $\endgroup$
    – Prem
    May 22, 2015 at 12:50
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Specifically Expected Answer:

The clue ---- |||| refers to a 4x4 grid where there are 4 words (4 letters each) horizontally, and the same grid gives the same words vertically.
This restriction fixes the possible values for each of the clues, which may have many matches in isolation.
1st word, Protons may be considered "indivisible, but not really" because they are made of quarks, but we can not split the Proton into 3 quarks. ATOM by Definition or Etymology, mean Indivisible, but we have been able to split that into Electrons, Protons and Neutrons.
2nd word, there may have been a wide variety of cloaks worn in Rome, but TOGA starts with T (2nd letter of ATOM)
3rd word, there may be many Different Possibilities, but not many start with O (3rd letter of ATOM). Anyway let us skip it for now.
4th word, 20 quires make a ream, but that will not start with M (last letter of ATOM). So the clue says "in reverse" so make that MAER, which starts with M.
Now it is a simple matter to fill in OGRE.

ATOM
TOGA
OGRE
MAER

I seem to have initiated a MEME with this simple puzzle : "rand al'thor" was inspired to make a 5-word variant, then "Engineer Toast" made variants for sizes 6 & 7 & 8 , finally "Avon" made 6-word variants twice.

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  • $\begingroup$ Actually I thought ATOM was one of the harder clues to get. MAER was easy since unambiguous, and then TOGA was also easy (you say "there may have been a wide variety of cloaks worn in Rome", but Google only seems to know of one!) $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 24, 2015 at 19:48
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor , When I woke up, I replied to your comment, but now I do not see that reply. Wondering if I imagined commenting (still half-asleep) ? Something strange ? (FYI : I referred to pallium & abolla in that comment ) $\endgroup$
    – Prem
    May 25, 2015 at 6:54
  • $\begingroup$ Mods can delete other people's comments, but I can't see why they'd do that here. Maybe you clicked the 'delete comment' button by accident?? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 25, 2015 at 9:04
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor , I think the "MODS DONE IT" , because deleting comments shows this "Really delete this comment?" which I would have seen that, even half-asleep. It would be good, if there were notifications like "Comment Deleted" $\endgroup$
    – Prem
    May 25, 2015 at 9:16
  • $\begingroup$ Weird. Why would they have deleted your comment? I assume you didn't say anything inappropriate? I've seen them delete whole chains of comments before, but usually only when there was an argument or personal discussion or a mention of something they didn't like. Maybe we should take it to meta? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    May 25, 2015 at 9:22

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