Search tips

Catalog of Puzzle Types » Forms » Cryptic forms

Cryptic forms

← Consonantless forms
Cube →

A standard form of any type with clues given in cryptic-crossword style is a cryptic form. (See the cryptics section.) Cryptic forms have appeared in both the Forms and Extras sections of The Enigma. Often, as in the example below, the clues are listed in alphabetical order rather than in grid order.

CRYPTIC SQUARE
 
Changes left behind? About time
Endless grass in poison
Gores confused monsters
Master without one way of knowing
Noisy man would supervise
 

The answer to the cryptic square is

 
OGRES
GUIDE
RICIN
EDITS
SENSE
 

Explanations (in clue order as originally presented): “side” (left) reversed around “t” (time); “rice” curtailed + “in”; anagram of “Gores”; “sensei” (Master) without “i” (one); homonym of “guy’d”. See the cryptics section for more discussion of cryptic clues.

See also

Foo

Bar

Baz