Charade clues, like anagrams, are well-adapted to longer answers, and since the Ubercross Abecedaria C has more than a few of those, I’m glad they exist. Even if they are a type I tend to side-eye, a little bit.
A simple charade works a lot like the party game charades. You break the answer into smaller answers, and then you exchange each part for a synonym (excepting some single-letter words). Charades usually need no indicators at all.
Get a ride, angry and annoyed at overwhelming, puzzling challenge (9)—UBERCROSS (UBER + CROSS)
Nothing wrong with that. It’s when the words get longer and not so easy to divide up that things can get murky. I’ve mentioned that certain types of clues can combine with each other, and charade clues will swipe right for almost anybody.
They combine with any other clue type except hidden clues. All the really long answers in the puzzle ended up being anagrams or some kind of combo charade. The charade below includes a deletion and an anagram along with more straightforward synonyms:
Wonderful building manager at Golden State curtails brittle, shuffling (sic) exit of irrational boxer and physician with notes payable (34)—SUPER (Building manager) + CALI (Golden State) + FRAGIL (FRAGILE, brittle, has been “curtailed”) + ISTICEX (SIC EXIT’s letters are “shuffled”) + PI (irrational) + ALI (boxer) + DOC (physician) + IOUS (notes payable)—SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
I tend not to like this sort of category-mixing as much as “pure” clues, either as a writer or as a solver. I mean…it’s all right, it gets the job done. If I could find a pure anagram that didn’t sound like an AI spitting up all over the keyboard, I’d choose that one instead.
But with this many clues, you gotta try everything once. In fact, you gotta try most things at least twenty or thirty times.
Earlier, I said I was tabulating and that it looked like anagrams might be about 20% of my total clues. At this point, I’ve got better figures. The most common clue type in the Ubercross C is hidden clues, at about 25%. Anagrams are next at 17%. Double definitions, in third place, also round to 17%. Charades are fourth at about 15%, and deletions and homophones 7% and 5%. Insertions, reversals, and alternations are each in the 2-3% range. Initials and the like came in at under 1%.
So we have, at this point, been over all the most common clue types, both in cryptic crosswords overall and in this puzzle, specifically. But there is one established type that everybody seems to forget about, and it got a 2% share of my total. We’ll get to that one next.