Cryptic crossword
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle in and of itself. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the United States, cryptics are sometimes known as "British-style" crosswords. Compilers of cryptic crosswords are commonly called "setters" in the UK.
Cryptic crossword puzzles come in two main types: the basic cryptic in which each clue answer is entered into the diagram normally, and "themed" or "variety" cryptics, in which some or all of the answers must be altered before entering, usually in accordance with a hidden pattern or rule which must be discovered by the solver.
See also
Further reading
- Chambers Crossword Manual by Don Manley (4th edition, Chambers 2006)
- Collins A to Z of Crosswords by Jonathan Crowther (Collins 2006)
- Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8) by Sandy Balfour (Atlantic Books 2003)
- Secrets of the Setters by Hugh Stephenson (Guardian Books 2005)
- Solving Cryptic Crosswords by B. J. Holmes (A & C Black 2002)
- Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies by Denise Sutherland (Wiley 2012)
- Two Girls, One on Each Knee by Alan Connor (Penguin/Particular, 2013)
- Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword by D. S. Macnutt (Swallowtail Books, 1966, reprinted 2001)
- 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From The New Yorker edited by Fraser Simpson (Sterling Publishing 2001)
