Cryptic crossword glossary
A Decryptic reference · Updated 13 July 2026
The words solvers and setters use, in plain English. If you've hit a term in a review, a blog, or one of our guides and weren't sure what it meant, it's here.
Advertisement
A to Z of cryptic terms
- Definition
- The straight, dictionary-style meaning of the answer, found at the start or end of every clue.
- Wordplay
- The coded second half of a clue that spells the answer a different way (anagram, hidden word, and so on).
- Fodder
- The actual letters an anagram (or similar device) rearranges, taken from words in the clue.
- Indicator (or signal)
- A word or phrase that flags which device is in play, e.g. "mixed" for an anagram or "back" for a reversal.
- Anagram
- Wordplay in which the answer's letters are jumbled in the clue.
- Hidden word
- An answer concealed in a run of consecutive letters spanning the clue's words.
- Reversal
- Wordplay in which a word or synonym is spelled backwards.
- Charade
- An answer built by joining smaller pieces end to end.
- Container (or insertion)
- Wordplay in which one group of letters is placed inside another.
- Deletion
- Wordplay in which letters are removed from a longer word to leave the answer.
- Initialism (or acrostic)
- Taking the first (or last) letter of each word in a run to spell the answer.
- Homophone
- An answer that sounds like another word or phrase in the clue.
- Double definition
- A clue made of two different meanings of the same word, with no indicator.
- Cryptic definition
- A clue that is a single punning definition, with no separate wordplay.
- &lit (all-in-one)
- A clue in which the whole sentence serves as both the wordplay and the definition at once.
- Spoonerism
- Wordplay that swaps the opening sounds of two words, flagged by "Spooner".
- Enumeration
- The number(s) in brackets after a clue giving the answer's length and word breaks, e.g. (7) or (3,4).
- Light
- Crossword jargon for an answer, i.e. an entry in the grid.
- Setter (or compiler)
- The person who writes the crossword.
- Surface reading
- The everyday sentence a clue appears to be, before you decode it; a good clue reads smoothly on the surface.
- Checked letter
- A grid cell shared by an across and a down answer, so it's confirmed by both.
- Unchecked letter
- A cell belonging to only one answer, with no crossing help.
- Nina
- A hidden word or message concealed in the grid (often in the unchecked letters or a diagonal), a bonus for sharp solvers.
- Ximenean
- The strict school of clue-writing that demands every clue be scrupulously fair and grammatically exact.
- Libertarian
- The looser school that allows more playful, less rigid cluing than the Ximenean rules.