Other cryptic clue types

Decryptic sticks to nine clue types that can be checked mechanically, so every clue it ships is provably fair. Cryptic crosswords in the wild use a handful of extra devices you won't see here. Some are left out because a computer can't verify them, others because they are rarer or trickier. Here they are, so you'll recognise them when you meet them elsewhere.

Why Decryptic leaves these out

Every Decryptic clue is generated and then checked by machine: the declared letters really do spell the answer. That guarantee is what keeps the puzzle fair. The devices below resist that kind of check. They turn on a pun, a sound, or a judgement about whether a whole sentence also reads as the definition, so Decryptic omits them rather than ship something it can't verify.

Cryptic definition

The whole clue is a single, punning definition, with no separate wordplay to break down. You solve it by seeing through the misdirection in the phrasing itself.

Flower of London? (6) → THAMES

There is no anagram or hidden word. The trick is that a "flower" can be a thing that flows, and the Thames flows through London.

&lit (all-in-one)

The most admired cryptic device: the entire clue is the wordplay AND the definition at the same time. Every word does double duty.

Terribly angered! (7) → ENRAGED

Read one way, "terribly" signals an anagram of "angered", which gives ENRAGED. Read as a whole, the clue also just describes someone enraged. Deciding that a sentence works as both at once takes human judgement, which is why it can't be auto-verified.

Spoonerism

Swap the opening sounds of two words to get a new phrase, in honour of the Reverend Spooner. Flagged by "Spooner" or "Spoonerism".

Spooner's blushing crow (8,4) → CRUSHING BLOW

Swap the initial sounds of "blushing crow" and you get "crushing blow". It depends on pronunciation and a plausible phrase, so it resists a mechanical check.

Novelty & rebus clues

One-off visual or positional tricks, where the letters or their arrangement stand for something.

HIJKLMNO (5) → WATER

The run of letters is H to O, that is H2O, which is water. These are clever, but they are one-offs, not a repeatable rule a generator can follow.

Cross-reference clues

A clue whose wordplay or definition depends on the answer to another clue in the same grid, such as "See 5" or "with 12 across, a famous pair". Decryptic's clues are deliberately self-contained, so each one stands alone.

Recognising them

If a clue has no spottable anagram, hidden word, charade or other device, and the letter count still fits, you may be looking at a cryptic definition or an &lit. A "Spooner" in the clue always means a spoonerism. Once you've learned the nine core devices in Decryptic, these are the extras that round out a broadsheet cryptic.