Questions tagged [cryptic-clues]
A puzzle that involves cryptic clues of the type found in cryptic crosswords, but is not a cryptic crossword. DO NOT use this tag for puzzles that are stated cryptically; use [enigmatic-puzzle] instead. Use [cryptic-crosswords] for whole crosswords; [crossword-clues] for crossword clues not obeying the conventions of cryptic crosswords (even if they are stated cryptically).
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Cryptic Clue Guide
This post is not a puzzle. There is nothing puzzly hidden inside it or the self-answer, posted at the same time.
What exactly is a cryptic crossword clue, and how do I write one?
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The Puzzling Times
$$\bbox[orange]{\begin{array}{rcl}\\\hline\huge\ \ \star\ \ \star\ \ The&\huge{Puzzling}&\huge{Times\ \ \star\ \ \star\ \ }\\\hline\\\end{array}}$$
Vol. 4, No. 1 $\raise 2pt \tt{\large{\...
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Discover the meaning of life!
You've trekked through jungle and tundra, across mountaintops and deserts, into giant caverns and beneath the ocean to find the person known as The Oracle. Finally, after all your hard work, you find ...
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Help! I am infected with the puzzling bug!
Argh...I can't get this bug of puzzling off my head! It's really weird, and so annoying, you know...I can't help thinking about puzzles all the time. It's like... when I see a word, I think of ...
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Japanese Fusion Alphabet Soup
The Dish...
...is an intriguing blend, with a base of classic Western flavours, and a twist of the Orient at its heart.
The Ingredients...
...are diverse and are combined in such an unexpected - dare ...
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re-re-reCAPTCHA
Last Friday, I was feeling a bit sad because I hadn't earned much rep recently, so I decided to try this awesome sock puppet thing everyone's been raving about. I logged out of my normal Puzzling ...
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Circuit Diagram
An entry to Fortnightly Topic Challenge #35: Restricted Title 1 - based on the following xkcd.
Circuit diagrams can be quite difficult to understand, so here are some documents that will hopefully ...
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Moderation strike: a tired lunatic (4)
Which four-letter word fits the clue "Moderation strike: a tired lunatic"?
Disclaimer:
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Cryptictionary!
After someone showed me "Cryptictionary" from the recent NPL con, I was inspired to make a puzzle, because I like drawing and I like cryptics :D
The rules are basically the same as cryptics, except ...
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Chess Fortnight is finally over!
(Note: the backstory here may or may not be entirely fictitious.)
The fortnightly chess theme is finally over! I couldn't stand it. It was chaos! Pieces moving around in all the wrong ways... I was ...
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literally no idea
Clues
What a conductor gives to an out-of-tune player?
You perform this in Spring
Sung by musical miners?
Those behind bars keeps tabs on this
Sounds something like a big colourful Spanish bird
...
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The Cryptic Writing On The Wall
The goal is simple: solve the cryptic clues to get a Only-Connect wall, consisting of 16 words, which then must be grouped into 4 groups of 4 words each sharing a common property.
Investigate the ...
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The first Density™ Puzzle!
Welcome to the very first puzzle in a new series! It's all about (hopefully) exploring new ways of creating puzzles, as densely as possible.
If you'd like to create your own Density™ puzzle, the ...
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Cryptic Poem: a study in what?
One day, while you work through one of your countless puzzle books, you notice that a sheet of paper has been slipped inside with a curious little poem written on it.
A Study
An ancient man ...
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Self-Referential Humor
This is an entry into the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #38. I hope it fits the theme!
The answer to this puzzle is what you should do to solve this puzzle.
Getting 51 and nice guy to start (7)
Level ...
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The Video Gamers' Double-Duty Crossword
"OK, so I know that you two are always arguing about what type of crosswords to do- 'Normal crosswords are too boring!' 'Cryptics are too esoteric!!' Trivia vs wordplay, yeah, I've heard both ...
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Cryptic Mastermind
And now for something completely different: Cryptic Mastermind!
Given below are five sets of five cryptic clues each, all resulting in five-letter words. The black and white pegs, like in regular ...
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Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #10 – Risky Finale
This is the tenth and final Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. Once this puzzle is solved, this Chain ...
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2020 election: The results are in!
At the Puzzling Stack Exchange headquarters, we've received the first definitive knowledge of the results of the United States presidential election of 2020. And because this is Puzzling, we naturally ...
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Cryptic Clue Maze
The maze
The paths
Malfunctioning oven trade fixed kitchen (9)
Damages small vehicles (5)
Coastal airport department's vulnerability (3,8)
Happy about rook color (4)
Anger about queer, out celebrity ...
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Which number am I thinking of?
Which number am I thinking of?
Here's a set of clues:
Call it sin, and mess it up (9)
between θ and κ (4)
engage emotionally (5)
half a byte (6)
mottle (5)
Never mix meds & gin (7)
‐ (4)
...
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Counter, Clock and Wise
Remember I told you that I am slowly turning eccentric? Well, turns out, it's worse than I had imagined. See, writing some random words on a piece of paper is one thing, and taking apart the hands of ...
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The Video Gamers' Double-Duty Crossword 2
See the original HERE
Video games — Trivia vs Wordplay — one more time:
Here are twenty crossword clues that describe twenty video games. Solve them if you'd like! Or, if you treat each clue as ...
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Potter Cryptic Clues
Today is July 31st, which, according to JK Rowling, is apparently Harry Potter's birthday. So, let's celebrate with some Harry Potter themed cryptic clues! The final answer is a good bit of trivia:
...
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Letter to the Editor
These are clues to two-word phrases that all have something in common:
Sustainable power
Fair-haired countess
Nice bull’s-eye
Furious swashbuckler
Quiet spoon
Peculiar heirloom
Understated whiskers
...
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Explain how π – 1 + 50 + ⅔ × 1000 is PLONK
The clue comes from a Guardian Newspaper cluing competition from 2020.
It’s carelessly set down: π – 1 + 50 + ⅔ × 1000 (5)
The answer is PLONK.
It’s carelessly set down = PLONK
π – 1 = P [Pi - i = ...
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The Unfinished Puzzle Section
Simply complete the sudoku and crossword, happy puzzling.
Across
1. Achieved acclaim by being knowledgable about strange apron (3, 6)
Down
2. Explode asteroid five to refrain from inactivity or ...
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Baring my Heart
This is an entry into the Fortnightly Topic Challenge: Restricted title 1
Alice has sent a message to Bob. Can you help Bob figure it out?
Ordinary vehicle turning all
Finished challenged
...
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We feast in Hell's kitchen, we swim through the deep
We feast in Hell’s kitchen, we swim through the deep,
we wait in the shadows for printers to sleep.
At midnight we come and we jumble your prose.
We pluck out your words because god only knows!
And ...
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Insurrection in Britain
Without remorse from the very start, Briton ousted Theresa, then maltreated someone else; dies (7, 3, 5, 3, 4)
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The Ooh-Aah Cryptic Maze
As you come to consciousness, your first thought is not of the cold stone floor beneath you, nor of the skull-adorned torches hanging on the walls.
ugh... I stayed up too late on PSE last night... My ...
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Seven levels through Europe
Let's take a little trip through Europe, shall we?
Each level forms a word chain. Even-numbered levels (yellow) go clockwise, odd-numbered ones (white) go anticlockwise.
Each level has an answer ...
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Can you feel the fire?
Can you feel the fire?
It burns us up;
Then it starts feeling fine.
It becomes a place of hope,
Where we endlessly rest in agony.
Now tell me, friend,
after all we've been through,
...
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Gladys unchained
This puzzle is part 2 of Gladys' journey across the globe. If you're new to the series, feel free to start at the beginning: Introducing Gladys.
Dear Puzzling,
Today I spent the ...
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A Cryptic Tale Indeed!
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #46: "Tales From the Cryptic"
We begin with the most abnormal, rosiest fables of twisted form, driven into the heart of endless deed. It is a dark ...
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PSE Assessment Exam
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #27: Treasure-Hunt...
Welcome to the PSE Assessment Exam!
This exam is designed to assess your aptitude, knowledge and experience as a high profile member of ...
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Chain Puzzle: Tabletop Games #09 - “The” Cryptic Movies
This is the ninth Chain Puzzle in the Tabletop Games series, in which all puzzles are themed around board games, card games, tile games, and the like. The answer to this puzzle is a thematic word or ...
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Is this a puzzle? If so, what is the solution?
In the 2032th xkcd comic Cueball utters a sentence that may (and probably does) contain a word puzzle.
[Cueball and Megan standing together, musical notes hanging in the air as if music is ...
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Unusually Cryptic
Here are some cryptics which have been made to be particularly unusual. You might find some easy, some hard, but hopefully, and most importantly, you find them all fun!
Edit: I've added an extra clue ...
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Big star initially shows gratitude (6)
A cryptic clue I originally wrote in a card to my cryptic crossword sensei:
Big star initially shows gratitude (6)
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Oh, woe is me, the creature's back
Oh, woe is me, the creature's back
to give me certain heart attack!
He's plucking words and shifting glyphs.
What sort of devilry is this?
I love the gates of hell; I’m kind of a rod (6)
The apple ...
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A printer's imp has run amok
A printer's imp has run amok
distorting clues but with some luck
you'll spy the hidden seams whereat
the devil’s work can be turned back.
Feral Ulysses S. Grant keeps the troops aroused (6)
A giant ...
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Cryptic quote from a press conference
(Buzz, expressions of hesitance) "The United Nations, together with a European nation", repeated USA's leader, "discovered Papuan area for exotic fish" (21)
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Traversing Africa: A Cryptic Journey
Each answer is a place, landmark or attraction in Africa, one per country. The answers first traverse all countries on the mainland by crossing land borders, and then the remaining ones go around the ...
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Cryptic clue with cryptic clues inside
English [artist to burn, burns heart] (6) [bits of nazis covering animal] (6) dollar with [familiar comrades, abbreviated, with the console] (7) residing on [forest endless street, rearranged] (5) (7)
...
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Cryptic Division 3: Stuck Together
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 ...
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Incomprehensible Crossword [Puzzle]
What Notable Object is the Following Crossword Cluing?
Across:
1. Clattering or banging, for example (5)
2. Has never been done before (8)
3. Fiery pit (4)
4. Exam solution (6)
5. Very cream of ...
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Ingrid Deduction pops by with a puzzle
The other night I was sat at home in Providence when the doorbell rang. To my surprise, my very good friend Ingrid Deduction stood on the step, a huge grin on her face and a piece of paper held out ...
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A cryptic mix up
So I was working on my first cryptic puzzle for this site, writing the front part of each clue on one slip of paper, and the back part of each clue on another, as you do. Somehow things got mixed up ...
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