Hidden word clues

The hidden word clue (also called an "insertion" or "telescopic" clue) is one of the easiest to solve once you know to look for it. The answer is sitting in plain sight, spelled out in order by a run of consecutive letters in the clue itself.

How a hidden word clue works

The answer is buried in a continuous stretch of letters, almost always crossing a gap between words so that it does not jump out at you. Nothing is rearranged or abbreviated. You just read straight across the letters. There are three parts:

• The definition. A plain meaning of the answer, at the start or the end of the clue.
• The hiding indicator. A word or phrase telling you the answer is tucked inside the words nearby.
• The run of words it hides in. This must contain the answer's letters in order, and their count must match the number in brackets.

Signals to look for

A hiding indicator is a word that suggests something held, buried or partly shown inside something else. A few that Decryptic uses:

Signals in, hidden in, some of, part of, within, inside, held by, contained in, buried in, concealed in, covered by, amid, among

The trick is spotting that a small linking word (in, some of, part of) is really an instruction. Whenever a word could mean "tucked inside", scan the letters around it for the answer.

A worked example

Concealed in these cretins (6) → SECRET

• Concealed is the definition. A secret is concealed.
• in is the hiding indicator.
• these cretins is where the answer hides.

Read straight across the letters of THESE CRETINS: the-SECRET-ins. S-E-C-R-E-T appears in order, and the (6) confirms the length. ✓

More examples

The answer usually spans two words, so let your eye slide across the gaps rather than stopping at each word.

Fruit hidden in Roman god (5) → MANGO

Fruit is the definition and hidden in is the indicator. Read across ROMAN GOD and MANGO appears: ro-MAN GO-d. ✓

Start revealed in champion setup (5) → ONSET

Start is the definition and revealed in is the indicator. The letters of ONSET run straight through champi-ON SET-up. ✓

Common pitfalls

• The answer never jumps around or reverses. A hidden word is always a straight run of letters in reading order.
• It nearly always crosses a word boundary. That is exactly what disguises it, so scan across the gaps between words, not just within single words.
• The indicator blends in. Words like "in", "some of" and "part of" read naturally in the sentence, so it is easy to miss that they are an instruction.

Stuck on a clue in Decryptic? Tap ? Help and it will tell you when you are looking at a hidden word and which letters to read across, so you can see the pattern for yourself.