A cryptic crossword is a in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the, where they originated,,, the, and in several nations, including,,,,,, and.

In the, cryptics are sometimes known as 'British-style' crosswords. Compilers of cryptic crosswords are commonly called 'setters' in the UK. Cryptic crossword puzzles come in two main types: the basic cryptic in which each clue answer is entered into the diagram normally, and 'themed' or 'variety' cryptics, in which some or all of the answers must be altered before entering, usually in accordance with a hidden pattern or rule which must be discovered by the solver. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • History and development [ ] The history of cryptic crosswords started in the UK. The first British crossword puzzles appeared around 1923 and were purely definitional, but from the mid-1920s they began to include cryptic material: not cryptic clues in the modern sense, but anagrams, classical allusions, incomplete quotations, and other references and wordplay.

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(Edward Powys Mathers), who set for The Saturday Westminster from 1925 and for from 1926 until his death in 1939, was the first setter to use cryptic clues exclusively and is often credited as the inventor of the cryptic crossword. The first newspaper crosswords appeared in the Sunday and Daily Express from about 1924.

Crosswords were gradually taken up by other newspapers, appearing in the from 1925, from 1929 and from 1930. These newspaper puzzles were almost entirely non-cryptic at first and gradually used more cryptic clues, until the fully cryptic puzzle as known today became widespread. In some papers this took until about 1960. Puzzles appeared in from 1930, but this was a weekly magazine rather than a newspaper, and the puzzles were much harder than the newspaper ones, though again they took a while to become entirely cryptic. Torquemada's puzzles were extremely obscure and difficult, and later setters reacted against this tendency by developing a standard for fair clues, ones that can be solved, at least in principle, by deduction, without needing leaps of faith or insights into the setter's thought processes.

The basic principle of fairness was set out by Listener setter Afrit () in his book Armchair Crosswords (1946), wherein he credits it to the fictional Book of the Crossword: We must expect the composer to play tricks, but we shall insist that he play fair. The Book of the Crossword lays this injunction upon him: 'You need not mean what you say, but you must say what you mean.' This is a superior way of saying that he can't have it both ways.

He may attempt to mislead by employing a form of words which can be taken in more than one way, and it is your fault if you take it the wrong way, but it is his fault if you can't logically take it the right way. An example of a clue which cannot logically be taken the right way: Hat could be dry (5) Here the composer intends the answer to be 'derby', with 'hat' the definition, 'could be' the anagram indicator, and 'be dry' the anagram fodder. But 'be' is doing double duty, and this means that any attempt to read the clue cryptically in the form '[definition] [anagram indicator] [fodder]' fails: if 'be' is part of the anagram indicator, then the fodder is too short, but if it is part of the fodder, there is no anagram indicator; to be a correct clue it would have to be 'Hat could be be dry (5)', which is ungrammatical. A variation might read Hat turns out to be dry (5), but this also fails because the word 'to', which is necessary to make the sentence grammatical, follows the indicator ('turns out') even though it is not part of the anagram indicated. Torquemada's successor at The Observer was Ximenes (, 1902–1971), and in his influential work, Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword Puzzle (1966), he set out more detailed guidelines for setting fair cryptic clues, now known as 'Ximenean principles' and sometimes described by the word 'square-dealing'. The most important of them are tersely summed up by Ximenes' successor (, born 1942): A good cryptic clue contains three elements: • a precise definition • a fair subsidiary indication • nothing else The Ximenean principles are adhered to most strictly in the subgenre of 'advanced cryptics' — difficult puzzles using barred grids and a large vocabulary.

Easier puzzles often have more relaxed standards, permitting a wider array of clue types, and allowing a little flexibility. The popular setter Araucaria (, 1921–2013) was a noted non-Ximenean, celebrated for his witty, if occasionally unorthodox, clues. Popularity [ ] Most of the major national in the UK carry both cryptic and concise (quick) crosswords.

The puzzle in is well loved for its humour and quirkiness, and quite often includes puzzles with themes, which are extremely rare in The Times. Puzzle also includes themes quite often. [ ] However, with its larger circulation, version is probably the most attempted. [ ] Many Canadian newspapers, including the, and the, carry cryptic crosswords. Cryptic crosswords do not commonly appear in U.S. Publications, although they can be found in magazines such as,,, and occasionally in the Sunday.

The reprints cryptic crosswords from The Times. Other sources of cryptic crosswords in the U.S. (at various difficulty levels) are puzzle books, as well as UK and Canadian newspapers distributed in the U.S. Other venues include the Enigma, the magazine of the, and formerly,.

The latter puzzle, after a long and distinguished run, appeared solely on The Atlantic's website for several years, and ended with the October 2009 issue. A similar puzzle by the same authors now appears monthly in. Cryptic crosswords are very popular in Australia.

Most Australian newspapers will have at least one cryptic crossword, if not two. The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age carry daily cryptic crosswords, including Friday's challenging cryptic by 'DA', composed.

The Australian puzzle publishers 'Lovatts' regularly puts out cryptic crossword puzzle books. How cryptic clues work [ ] In essence, a cryptic clue leads to its answer as long as it is read in the right way. What the clue appears to say when read normally (the surface reading) is a distraction and usually has nothing to do with the clue answer. The challenge is to find the way of reading the clue that leads to the solution.

A typical clue consists of two parts, the definition and the wordplay. It provides two ways of getting to the answer. The definition, which usually exactly matches the,, and of the answer, is in essence the same as any 'straight' crossword clue, a synonym for the answer. It usually appears at the start or the end of a clue. The other part (the subsidiary indication, or wordplay) provides an alternative route to the answer (this part would be a second definition in the case of double definition clues). One of the tasks of the solver is to find the boundary between definition and wordplay and insert a mental pause there when reading the clue cryptically. This wordplay gives the solver some instructions on how to get to the answer another way.

(Sometimes the two parts are joined with a link word or phrase such as 'from', 'gives' or 'could be'.) There are many sorts of wordplay, such as anagrams and double definitions, but they all conform to rules. The crossword setters do their best to stick to these rules when writing their clues, and solvers can use these rules and conventions to help them solve the clues. Noted cryptic setter (who wrote cryptics under the pseudonym of Ximenes) discusses the importance and art of fair cluemanship in his seminal book on cryptic crosswords, Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword (1966, reprinted 2001). Because a typical cryptic clue describes its answer in detail and often more than once, the solver can usually have a great deal of confidence in the answer once it has been determined.

The clues are 'self-checking'. This is in contrast to non-cryptic crossword clues which often have several possible answers and force the solver to use the crossing letters to distinguish which was intended. Here is an example (taken from crossword of 6 August 2002, set by 'Shed'). 15D Very sad unfinished story about rising smoke (8) is a clue for TRAGICAL. This breaks down as follows. • 15D indicates the location and direction (down) of the solution in the grid • 'Very sad' is the definition • 'unfinished story' gives 'tal' ('tale' with one letter missing; i.e., unfinished) • 'rising smoke' gives 'ragic' (a 'cigar' is a smoke and this is a down clue so 'rising' indicates that 'cigar' should be written up the page; i.e., backwards) • 'about' means that the letters of 'tal' should be put either side of 'ragic', giving 'tragical' • '(8)' says that the answer is a single word of eight letters.

There are many 'code words' or 'indicators' that have a special meaning in the cryptic crossword context. (In the example above, 'about', 'unfinished' and 'rising' all fall into this category). Learning these, or being able to spot them, is a useful and necessary part of becoming a skilled cryptic crossword solver. Or setters often use slang terms and abbreviations, generally without indication, so familiarity with these is important for the solver.

Abbreviations may be as simple as 'west' = W, 'New York' = NY, but may also be more difficult. Words that can mean more than one thing are commonly exploited; often the meaning the solver must use is completely different from the one it appears to have in the clue. Some examples are: • Bloomer - often means flower (a thing that blooms).

• Flower - often means river (a thing that flows). • Lead - could be the metal, an electric cable, or the verb. • Nice - if capitalized as the first word, could either be 'amiable' or the French city. Thus 'Nice friend' often means the letters ami. • Novel - could be a book, or a word for new, or a code-word indicating an anagram. • Permit - could be a noun (meaning license) or a verb (meaning allow). Of these examples, 'flower' is an invented meaning by back-formation from the -er suffix, which cannot be confirmed in a standard dictionary.

A similar trick is played in the old clue 'A wicked thing' for CANDLE, where the -ed suffix must be understood in its 'equipped with a.' In the case of the -er suffix, this trick could be played with other meanings of the suffix, but except for river → BANKER (a river is not a 'thing that banks' but a 'thing that has banks'), this is rarely done. Sometimes 'compiler', or the name or codename of the compiler (if visible by the crossword), codes for some form of the pronoun 'I, me, my, mine'. In the back page, Monday 15 March 2017, 7 down, is 'Banish spirits with zero ice upsetting imbibing times (8)'; the answer is EXORCIZE: it means 'banish spirits', and is 'zero ice' rearranged, including 'x' (described as 'times'). Grids for cryptic crosswords [ ]. • Eliot, George..

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London: Guardian News and Media Limited. • A Display of Lights (9), Val Gilbert, 2008 - p. 155 • The Sunday Times Mephisto Crossword Book 1, 2003 - Introduction • Kamm, Oliver (2009-03-26).. Retrieved 2010-04-30. • Byers, David. Archived from on 13 May 2008.

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Friedman and E.C. Carterette, Editors. 1996, Academic Press: San Diego, CA. • Aarons, D., Jokes and the Linguistic Mind. Introduction to linguistics/cognitive science.

2012, London: Routledge. • Aarons, D.L. 'Following Orders: Playing Fast and Loose with Language and Letters'. Australian Journal of Linguistics. 35 (4): 351–380.. • Winder, B.C., Intelligence and expertise in the elderly, PhD thesis 1993, University of Manchester: UK.

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1988, Wiley: Chichester. • Underwood, G.; Deihim, C.; Batt, V. 'Expert performance in solving word puzzles: from retrieval cues to crossword clues'. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 8 (6): 531–548.. • ^ Friedlander, K.J.; Fine, P.A. 'The Grounded Expertise Components Approach in the novel area of cryptic crossword solving'.

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The Guardian. Further reading [ ] • Chambers Crossword Manual by Don Manley (4th edition, Chambers 2006) • Collins A to Z of Crosswords by Jonathan Crowther (Collins 2006) • Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8) by Sandy Balfour (Atlantic Books 2003) • Secrets of the Setters by Hugh Stephenson (Guardian Books 2005) • Solving Cryptic Crosswords by B. Holmes (A & C Black 2002) • Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies by Denise Sutherland (Wiley 2012) • Two Girls, One on Each Knee by Alan Connor (Penguin/Particular, 2013) • Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword by D. Macnutt (Swallowtail Books, 1966, reprinted 2001) • 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From The New Yorker edited by Fraser Simpson (Sterling Publishing 2001) External links [ ] • (American style, with some notes specific to The Nation) • from Puzzazz (American style, some British info) • • from Crossword Clue Solver (British) • - Notes on the cluing style of famed British cryptic author Ximenes • (article from The Guardian, extracted from Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose by Sandy Balfour).