Questions tagged [cryptic-crosswords]
Cryptic crosswords are a special type of crossword puzzle where clues combine a definition with wordplay. Use [crosswords] where the clues don't obey the conventions of cryptic crosswords; [cryptic-clues] or [crossword-clues] for clues not assembled into whole crosswords.
13
votes
4answers
2k views
Disembodied hand growing fangs
Across
2. Puzzle expert breaks first dilemma partially (7)
10. Nobleman bandleader (4)
13. Lead singer, AC/DC's second; extremely over-the-top (5)
18. Actor Morgan and organ lying on the same ...
26
votes
1answer
354 views
Arc (&) Reactors
(Note: This puzzle may require a small amount of research if you aren't familiar with the work from its theme.)
It was exactly 11 years ago -- April 14, 2008, in Sydney -- that the first Iron Man ...
10
votes
2answers
884 views
cryptic clue: mammal sounds like relative consumer (8)
While solving this cryptic I figured out the answer to 1-across (mammal sounds like relative consumer) without solving the subsidiary indication. (I used down constraints and the standard part of the ...
11
votes
2answers
679 views
Collected fruit by Seine's banks
Across
1. Double-decker reversing in front of soldier's watercraft (9)
5. Sectarian salt dispenser (6)
10. Opposed to machine learning amid mental angst (7)
11. New York city – why to be ...
9
votes
2answers
453 views
Keeping you safe
Complete the grid and find a two-word final answer.
Across
1. Ability to move first to northern aristocracy (8)
4. Animal to rip a short tail back (5)
5. Oral tradition about the origin of ...
11
votes
2answers
982 views
X marks the what?
In the following clues, a certain term been replaced with $X$. Find out the meaning of $X$ and solve the crossword.
Down
Deadly $X$ (5)
White heroine or cocaine (4)
Introduction of good ...
8
votes
3answers
367 views
Help the Monkee get to the bandanas
Micky Dolenz, drummer and vocalist of 1960s pop band The Monkees, has lost his headwear collection. It has been hidden in a maze whose walls are in unknown places. To find out the location of the ...
18
votes
2answers
1k views
Emojional cryptic crossword
ACROSS
3. 🌟½☥🐪🚫👣 (9)
7. 🏆❌🖽⚔️ (3)
8. ½🍔🇫🇷🌊🏢 (6)
11. ♉½🇬🇷✉️ (3)
12. 🔫⭐⏺️♥️🗽🎭 (5)
13. 🍈♥️🇨🇴🏙️⏮️🍟🔚💐 (6)
14. 👂♀️🦌💰 (5)
16. 🎩👦♻️🐴🦄☝️🗾🏝️ (6)
19. 🐏💪🔀 (3)
...
10
votes
4answers
855 views
Sailing the cryptic seas
So, I've built myself a ship. The image shows it from above. (Look, use your imagination, ok?)
With the clues below, try to figure out whether my ship is headed toward the top right or toward the ...
6
votes
1answer
139 views
The Wild Bogeyman's Crossword
Solve this cryptic crossword and find the common theme:
The wild bogeyman dropped his bag in the bank (5)
God returned the small animals (4)
The insect stayed in the hospital and became a family ...
8
votes
1answer
973 views
No, nay, never, no more
A short one to celebrate an upcoming holiday.
1. A loud, wild rover's intense passion (6)
2. Needlessly spent, under the influence of whiskey and beer (6)
3. I'm returning with gold ...
11
votes
2answers
264 views
Cryptic Crossword with Missing LUGs
Inspired by jafe's Cryptic with missing capitals and Tzu Li's Tokyo Metro puzzle:
Solve the clues and fill the grid. Each clue is missing a different London Underground Station
As jafe has noted in ...
18
votes
3answers
915 views
Cryptic with missing capitals
Solve the clues and fill the grid. Each clue is missing a different European capital city.
Across
1. Funny beret men strike $??$ to convene (4)
3. Containers found in a $??$ plaza (...
10
votes
3answers
324 views
Cryptic with some cross words
Across
1. Philosopher rejects Vietnamese soup, producing gas (5)
3. A penguin's formal attire (3)
5. Primate's kiss is the greatest success (4)
7. Meet not in extreme Korean clothing (3)
10. ...
17
votes
3answers
1k views
Cryptic cross… with words
Solve the clues and fit the answers into the grid.
Far north Silicon Valley's research & development leaders surround Jessica (8)
Pop star loses British-American distribution ...
18
votes
8answers
4k views
Headless horseman claims new head
Solve the clues and fit the answers into the grid so that each of the coloured squares contains exactly four different letters.
Sahara desert capitals of historically African region in ...
7
votes
1answer
354 views
Where can I find cryptic crossword answers explained?
Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but I'm not sure where else I might be able to get an answer.
I've recently gotten into cryptic crosswords. However, one thing keeps ...
13
votes
1answer
693 views
Colourful cryptic
No numbers in this grid. The clues are grouped into 12 squares by the location of the word's first letter. No guesswork is needed – if you have the correct answers, there's only one way to fit ...
11
votes
1answer
2k views
Not even Cuba a true island nation
ACROSS
Country's initial trade union with endless value (6)
Arrangement before wordplay backfires (6)
Hiding in a Uruguayan Republic (5)
Pacific nation to place friend before treasure (...
8
votes
1answer
597 views
Walking-related cryptic crossword
Across:
Telephone lacking automobile (5)
Toy company to put level head before self-importance (4)
Airport wanderer with large heart eliminates 007 (5)
Down:
Vehicle ...
7
votes
2answers
395 views
Intermediate's Cryptic Crossword
My second attempt at making a cryptic crossword using the tips I was given in my first attempt.
I'm not sure if they adhere exactly to the rules, as there are a couple occurrences of homophones.
...
6
votes
1answer
280 views
Beginner's Cryptic Crossword
I've always been terrible at Cryptic Crosswords so I spent some time creating some clues of my own and have managed to fit them together to make a small Crossword of my own.
Once solved, any issues ...
4
votes
2answers
252 views
West is /a/ direction, but is it /one/ direction?
I want to clue the letters "FOWEST". Clearly,
Return of direction
would be fair, and so, IMO, is
Return of a direction
but is it fair to make the slight change to
Return of One Direction
...
18
votes
2answers
670 views
The friendly cryptic where nobody has to die!
Warning: This puzzle may contain spoilers about Undertale and its plot. Please don't proceed if you don't want to be spoiled, since nothing will be in hide tags!
Undertale was released for the Switch ...
4
votes
2answers
128 views
Cryptic crossword help
The clue is “Message to go in the Times (5)”
Please supply answers with explanations and what indicators you used in the clue. Thanks
64
votes
1answer
2k views
The Two-Trench Truce
This is an entry into the Fortnightly Topic Challenge #41.
The 100th anniversary of the end of World War I just passed a few days ago! In memory of this, in this puzzle we're going to reconstruct an ...
26
votes
1answer
430 views
A Ghastly Cryptic
Oh no! Hallowe'en has weakened the borders between this realm and the spirit realm, allowing some tenebrous nogoodnik to release several ghosts from other universes upon you!
In this cryptic, each ...
2
votes
2answers
207 views
A Probably Pretty Badly Made Cryptic
I finally tried my hand at a cryptic crossword.
I don't really have any experience with cryptic crosswords, or crosswords for that matter so I probably broke like 300 rules.
For example, 17 down is ...
3
votes
4answers
209 views
Is it fair to interlink clues?
Is it fair to link clues both ways? E.g. can I do:
1a. Local girl gives 8 (4, 4)
8d. 1 gives smooth head (5, 5)
I'm quite libertarian. What could I get away ...
19
votes
1answer
202 views
Getting All Riled Up
Recently, there's been an awful lot of Riley riddles across PSE. Why are they so prolific? I think there's three main reasons: they're quick to write, quick to solve, and apart from its minor gimmick ...
4
votes
2answers
122 views
Generic Cryptic Crossword
Here's a cryptic crossword. I was originally planning on having some sort of overarching theme, but the words were just not fitting together how I wanted. Good luck!
ACROSS
1. Interpreter from the ...
17
votes
1answer
837 views
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 ...
11
votes
1answer
154 views
Creative Accounting
Sometimes, you just need to make your numbers look a little better. Exaggeration is a mathematical concept!
Across
1. Hesitant to drop ninth scolding (6)
4. Bird is eating element 108 (4)
8. Score ...
1
vote
0answers
151 views
How to choose a crossword grid
I have two clues whose surfaces run together very neatly (no relation between the answers). How do I go about choosing a grid so they appear next to each other? E.g.
[Down clues]
4. Jay-Z is worried ...
14
votes
1answer
454 views
Making Things Difficult
This puzzle was meant to be for Fortnightly Challenge #35: Restricted Title #1, but due to various reasons I only got around to starting it recently. Constructed with apologies to my friend Atrus.
...
12
votes
1answer
303 views
Cryptic crossword #36
Fairly straightforward, I think.
Across
1 Changing climate? Ban car transport (8,5)
8 As Aladdin rubs his lamp, the contents turn to fire (4)
9 CBBC hit is a calculated insult to woman of ...
25
votes
1answer
515 views
Plot Twist (variety cryptic)
This is an entry into the 36th Fortnightly Topic Challenge: "Twisted Classics".
Each clue/answer pair in this puzzle has been affected by one of these types of plot twist:
28 of the clues have ...
32
votes
1answer
997 views
What xkcd Means
What xkcd Means
This is a variety cryptic inspired by the comic "What xkcd Means" (linked above) and the work of Ucaoimhu. It is also an entry into the 35th Fortnightly Topic Challenge: Restricted ...
25
votes
2answers
453 views
Popularity Within a Target Audience
This is a metapuzzle with four component puzzles and a final meta.
Creations of CSIRO
The Australian research institute CSIRO is notable for producing inventions such as gene shears, the insect ...
18
votes
2answers
494 views
Deceptive Diagramless
Note: You will probably want some form of graph paper, square paper, crossword-constructing program, spreadsheet software, or some tool for inputting things into a grid to solve this. A blank 25x25 ...
17
votes
2answers
410 views
Creatures of Darkness
The shadows are scary! I feel like there are beasts watching me everywhere I go...
What kind of person would be able to handle the dark well? (Your answer will be an 8-letter phrase. The crossword ...
7
votes
1answer
232 views
28
votes
1answer
541 views
2
votes
2answers
168 views
Word length for acronyms
Is IDS Center (3, 6) or (1, 1, 1, 6)?
My sense is that (1, 1, 1, 6) would have been preferred last century, but with acronyms increasingly used in everyday life, (3, 6) would now be acceptable.
10
votes
1answer
251 views
A less smutty cryptic crossword (#33)
First grid I've done without auto-fill, though I did have to resort to a word finder. Next month's will be all my own work!
...
14
votes
1answer
384 views
My first completed cryptic in a while (arguably NSFW) (13x13)
I started this at least a year ago, and somehow never finished it. Some of the topicality may have worn off. Anyway, this is the first time I've posted a complete puzzle here, so apologies if I've ...
13
votes
2answers
784 views
Completing the square?
As you work through one of your (also) countless maths books, enjoying (but also slightly concerned about) the lack of puzzling notes from your brother, you discover that he has struck once again, ...
42
votes
1answer
2k views
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 - ...
4
votes
1answer
148 views
Cryptic crossword: perimeter fill
The perimeter of the grid spells out a phrase (7 words, 28 letters) that is a quotation from a worker to a ruler. The name of the person the quote is attributed to should be written in the grey box ...
8
votes
1answer
494 views
Cryptic crossword (jigsaw puzzle)
This is a jigsaw puzzle cryptic crossword: the clues are listed in alphabetical order of answer. Answers are fitted into the grid to produce a valid crossword solution. No squares contain more than ...
