I like crossword puzzles and when I’m on a roll will do 3 to 5 a day. But being an American, I’m a crossword sissy. American crossword clues are mostly a synonym or direct pointer to the target word. About as clever as it ever gets is a clue like “leaves home”1.
The British, however, despite their egregious over spacing of the em-dash, are not crossword sissies. Their crossword clues do everything they can to be obscure. They make “leaves home” feel like a gimme. I was vaguely aware of the difference between American and British crosswords but had no idea about how large that difference is until someone posted a link to this 2019 reprint of a 1968 New York Magazine article on how to do a real crossword. They really are a different species.
The article gives examples of typical clues and their answers. As it turns out, the clues, themselves, have clues that tell the solver what type of clue it is. Some are anagrams: “Stares at torn pages” is an example. The torn is a (sub) clue that the answer is an anagram of “pages” meaning “stares at” so the answer is “gapes”.
According to the article, there are seven types of clues:
- Anagrams
- Multiple meanings
- Reversals
- Charades
- Container and contents
- Puns
- Hidden
An explanation of the various clue types is too involved for a short blog post but if you have an interest in crosswords or are just curious, take a look at the article. In the meantime, I’ll think I’ll stick to American crosswords. At least they give you a fighting chance.
Footnotes:
Tree