So now that I’ve talked about all the official types of cryptic clues, let’s get into the types that I invented for the sake of this puzzle. I feel like they’re in the spirit of the other types, but I haven’t seen them in other puzzles with any regularity.
These extras are neither a complete list nor very representative of the puzzle as a whole. I used only established types of clues for 96-97% of the puzzle answers. And sometimes I’d hit on a clue idea that didn’t scale.
For instance, SWIMS is the only five-letter English word that (1) reads basically the same right-side up as upside down, in almost any typeface, and (2) isn’t a palindrome. So it’s fun to clue it with reference to that fact…
Backstrokes and crawls, turning over
(5)—SWIMS
But that’s not a clue genre: it’s just a one-time opportunity. So let’s talk about the types I found that did scale up.
First up is the code clue. Or cipher clue, if you’d rather be more specific.
You probably know how simple substitution codes work: every letter in the code is meant to stand in for some other letter. In the code called ROT-13, every letter gets replaced with the one that’s thirteen slots after it in the alphabet (allowing you to loop back around). So “code” would become “pbqr.”
Some words and phrases are natural “codes” for each other. The word WORDS could be code for the word OTHER, for instance. But that’s not terribly interesting. You could do the same with any other five-letter word where all five letters were different from each other (and didn’t have any of the same letters in the same places as OTHER). A single letter’s duplication (as in GOOD or RIVER) isn’t too notable either.
But when letters are in a more unusual pattern…ah, that’s when things start to get fun.
Coded
entente with Little Rascal (7)—ALFALFA
The letters in ENTENTE form the same pattern as the letters in the Little Rascal named ALFALFA, and these are the only two common English words to fall in that 1-2-3-1-2-3-1 pattern.
Secret message:
“Doomed by conqueror!…” (6)—ATTILA
Here, the letters in DOOMED nudge the solver toward ATTILA, which shares its 1-2-2-3-4-1 pattern. There are other words and names that have that pattern, including EFFACE, HOORAH, and ROOMER. But only one of them fits the “conqueror” description.
You can do a multiple-word code if you can find one…
Irresponsible parent prepares pep
talk in cypher
(8,3)—DEADBEAT DAD
Sometimes an interesting pattern just doesn’t have any “natural codes” to work with. SENSELESSNESS, even if I search the largest dictionary I can find, has nothing. I’d be much better off doing a letter bank clue for that one, or maybe some kind of charade. (Did the loch monster whose loch was evaporating SENSE LESS NESS?)
A cryptogram puzzle is a longer passage that’s put into substitution code and left for the user to decipher. There are online tools to solve cryptograms, and I tend to find those useful when I’m looking up code-clue possibilities.
And sure, I could have called this kind of clue a “cryptogram clue.” But that’d mean it was a cryptogram cryptic crossword clue, and that just seems like too much of a tongue twister.
Key
edit site for blockbuster film (4,4)—STAR WARS