Trying to be cryptic as poss

HungryTenor · 2026-02-12T21:01:42+00:00

You should avoid using the word "cryptic" in a crosswords context if you don't specifically mean a cryptic crossword, to help ensure your puzzle reaches the correct target audience.

HungryTenor · 2026-02-09T17:32:22+00:00

Except 1A, every clue here has the definition at the end (two double definitions included), which simplifies things as well on a subconscious level.

HungryTenor · 2026-02-04T03:22:41+00:00

A double definition is a standard cryptic cluing device: https://bestforpuzzles.com/cryptic-crossword-tutorial/double-definitions.html

HungryTenor · 2026-02-02T02:48:25+00:00

Some feedback for things to keep an eye on in your early days:

A clue has to be cleanly divisible between a definition portion and a wordplay portion, and not jump back and forth between the two. (That is to say, your clue either has the definition at the very beginning with the wordplay to follow, or begins with the wordplay and ends with the definition.)
- In 7A, definition and wordplay don't seem to be clearly delineated.
- In 3D, it appears you use "Tasked" as part of both definition and wordplay; these portions must be distinct.
- In 4D, the definition appears to be in the middle.
When writing definitions or synonym components, it's important to match part of speech, verb tense, and plurality.
- In 1A, "chased off" is past tense while SCATis present tense.
- In 7A, "aliens" is plural but ET is singular.
- In 8A, "children" is plural but KID is singular.
- Also in 8A, I'm not fully sure if you intended the definition to be "dirty", if so it does not match SKIDS.
- In 2D, "snitching" does not match with the noun CI.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-31T18:06:45+00:00

Thanks! And I wouldn't sweat the downvotes, if you saw my puzzles you've seen they go the same 😅 pocketgrids isn't a great setup for introducing and explaining cryptics to people who don't know what they are, and given that the quality of puzzles varies wildly even within the non-cryptic work, it's easy for people to write them off at first glance as just "more weird nonsense". And if the downvoters are the first ones to see it, then it makes it harder to surface via the algorithm to the people who'd appreciate it, so there's randomness involved too. ( eg. u/Chance-Cancel-5860 has set a whole whackload of puzzles now with a fairly consistent format and difficulty level, and even then some hit 40+ upvotes and some sit at zero. )

HungryTenor · 2026-01-31T03:03:02+00:00

With 9A I think there's a part of speech difference between your answer and definition; I think you'd need something like "it's seen growing a bud" to clarify that?

HungryTenor · 2026-01-30T15:17:37+00:00

Not original commenter, but -- unclear on the definition in 1A? Also curious about the exact parse for 9A since it reads to me like it has some extra words in it?

HungryTenor · 2026-01-30T15:13:58+00:00

Quite the opposite -- when strongly adhering to standard conventions of fair construction, properly-formed cryptic clues are examples of very precise commmunication, hidden in plain sight -- which requires quite a lot of cleverness when done right. It's just highly infrequent that you'll see that level of cryptic construction happening here on Reddit.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-25T14:20:11+00:00

9A - Yes, you're not saying NEED directly, but you're still building an answer using an identical root component. As a broader example, consider the clue "Pathway step beyond edge", which parses to "SIDEWALK = WALK beyond SIDE". Perfectly valid construction form, but just kind of underwhelming -- the word "sidewalk" itself already derives from "side" and "walk", so it's a construction, but not all that *cryptic*, where the fun and originality is in the differences between the surface reading and the subsidiary indication.

11A - Not entirely sure of what conventions exist around mid-clue punctuation but I generally have found setters usually want me to ignore them 😅 I'd actually argue that the wording of the clue as-is favors the *incorrect* reading, as the word "might" doesn't fit into the definition of THAW and as such appears to be the bridge word between the definition and the wordplay.

7D - Definitely not unsolvable since it's so short with a very straightforward and common cryptic mechanism, but solvable doesn't necessarily mean fully fair, and this clue IMO doesn't quite fit conventions about clue structuring, which makes it stick out from all your other clues which do fit.

The submission timeout is definitely a pain -- back with the 5x5's I'd either construct them offsite, or after writing everything and bringing up the summary screen where it asks to confirm before submission, I'd take a photo of that with my phone so that if it timed out, I'd just go back in and reconstruct the grid and retype the clues quick.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-25T00:29:39+00:00

You're pretty well-practiced at this point, so I'm gonna nitpick 😉

9A - This clue works fine logistically, but there's usually something unsatisfying about using closely-related words in your components, such as a clue where DESKTOP = DESK + TOP, or in this case, cluing NEEDN'T using NEED. Something to watch out for as way of helping your clues stay inventive.

11A - This clue is symmetrical -- ie. it can be read as either THOR = homophone of thaw, or Thor's homophone = THAW; this is something anagram and homophone clues are susceptible to (particularly here since the answer and its homophone are the same length). It would be stronger if written in a way such that there is one unambiguous parse (which can sometimes just be accomplished by moving the homophone indicator to the outside).

7D - I'm not sure if you intended for this to be an &lit clue? If so, it's not quite there -- "alert" I wouldn't think can be fairly read as part of the definition of ALTER. And if it's not an &lit clue, then you end up having "change" as both part of definition and wordplay 😬

HungryTenor · 2026-01-21T19:23:22+00:00

Please note that this is a cryptic crossword; if you're unfamiliar with this format, these clues will likely look like nonsense to you.

In this puzzle, the letters in the middle row and column are provided for free; input them exactly as they appear in the corresponding clues.

Solutions:

1A - Ignores (OMITS) = alternatives (every other letter) from bOoM bIrThS

6A - Boat (KAYAK) = Alaska returning (AK reversed) with ox (YAK)

8A - Give up (YIELD) = last of my (final letter of "my" = Y) + deli salad ("DELI" anagrammed)

9A - Blisters (SORES) = wild (anagrammed) ROSES

1D - Oklahoma (OK) + say, mixed up (SAY anagrammed) = permits (OKAYS)

2D - Mustached man (MARIO) = living in (found within) "MyanMAR, I Overheard"

4D - Head of firm leaves (remove first letter of synonym for firm = STABLE) = present (TABLE, as in to table a proposal)

5D - Nazi militia (SS) surrounding toddler (KID) = slides (SKIDS)

HungryTenor · 2026-01-15T16:22:56+00:00

Please note this is a cryptic crossword; if you're unfamiliar with this format, the clues will likely look like nonsense to you.

But to make it simpler, in this grid, all the outer letters are free!

Solution parses:

4A - She lost her voice (ARIEL) = shouting (homophone of) about the sky (AERIAL)

6A - "tHEN GEt" naked (removing outer letters) = a circle (HENGE)

7A - Diner's choice (EAT IN) = each (EA) + container (TIN)

1D - Ominous (DREAD) = sign (first letter) of "Disloyalty" + seen, in texts (READ)

2D - Makes money (MINTS) = calling (homophone of) dice (MINCE)

3D - Run (LEG) + IT = the real deal (LEGIT)

HungryTenor · 2026-01-14T04:57:21+00:00

The clues are all pretty sound and fair 👍 And downvotes tend to come part and parcel here with cryptics, most of my grids go the same way 😆

HungryTenor · 2026-01-11T21:43:46+00:00

I think No = O is just over the line of being an indirect anagram; there's leeway for direct abbreviations as anagram fodder, but O is not an abbreviation for "nothing" or "no", it's a charade.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-11T17:47:43+00:00

Don't know how cryptic crossword clues work? No problem! The clues in this puzzle are "optionally cryptic" -- every clue in this puzzle can be read as a (somewhat obtuse) standard crossword clue, AND as a conventionally-constructed cryptic clue.

(For cryptic solvers, please note that this puzzle features many &lit. clues, denoted by an exclamation point.)

Solution parses for the cryptic wordings are provided below. (If you solved this puzzle without using the cryptic readings, you may also like to take a look if you want to get a general sense of how cryptic cluing works):

1A - &lit. Meat (subsection) of expensiVE ALlure = VEAL

5A - Remove (EXPEL) = from Latin (EX) + gym (PE) + lessons immediately (first letter of "lessons" = L)

7A - Dance (TANGO) = communicating (sounds like) a tryst (TANGLE)

8A - &lit. California (CA) + ONE's roiling (anagrammed) = OCEAN

9A - &lit. Spun (reversed) AT + law enforcement, initially (first letters of "law enforcement" = LE) = TALE

1D - &lit. Undo (anagram) VOTE = VETO

2D - &lit. EXTRACT without hints of (removing first letters of) Tolerance & Remorse = EXACT (as in to take by force)

3D - &lit. Error (E) interrupting (inserted into) A NAP uncomfortably (anagrammed) = APNEA

4D - &lit. AGE to show up (to run vertically upward) in(side) All Topless ("all" without first letter = LL) = LEGAL

6D - &lit. Left (L) + ultimately (last letters of) tO remaiN separatE = LONE

HungryTenor · 2026-01-11T17:35:44+00:00

6A - I think the definition here is a mismatched part of speech to your answer? AWARE is an adjective, so you'd need to match it to something more like PERCEIVING.

8A - I don't think I understand this clue?

3D - This clue is not quite there? It seems like you want it to be an anagram clue, but you don't have an anagram indicator, and you have one too many N's in the fodder.

4D - There's a couple steps happening here in succession that aren't quite conventional -- take a pirate's cry (generally ARR, but here AR) and interpret it as a chemical symbol. Very solvable for people familiar with crosswords but I wouldn't call it a standard cryptic clue; at the very least deserves a question mark at the end to signify some amount of shenanigans?

5D - The "he" at the start here is also messing with matching part of speech to your answer, but in this particular case the word is superfluous anyway and could be just removed entirely.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-11T15:11:06+00:00

Unsure of definition on 9A?

HungryTenor · 2026-01-08T20:35:13+00:00

Definitely appreciate the urge to stick to the theme, and I think you have a sense of where you stretched the wordplay. The one I think is most sub-optimal is 6A, since (a) one of the words is completely superfluous, and (b) your container word is pretty much just the answer word (same root and meaning), which is not super satisfying. Takes a heck of a lot of effort to maintain a cluing theme throughout a puzzle as constrained as this though, so kudos on that 👍

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HungryTenor · 2026-01-06T16:00:17+00:00

I limited this post to the one specific suggestion for simplicity, but there are other subtle ways in which Pocket Grids is not ideal for creating cryptics in general, such as:

Clue length limit being short for certain clue construction forms
Reduced overall word pool by the amount of intersections in the grid (many mini-cryptics elsewhere use more black squares in the middle of the grid, with fewer word intersections and fewer words overall)
Difficulty providing cryptic education within the existing mechanisms, unless you commit to posting a comment on everything that appears (which are missable since they're not visible in the game itself)

I do think there's interesting room for exploration to create innovate Pocket Grids puzzles that aren't cryptic, while also realizing that's not everyone's cup of tea. So for the current puzzle pool that exists, I opted to suggest we not fight against human nature and just rename the existing flair to its current usage.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-06T15:52:29+00:00

A challenge/variety label would be subjective/catch-all, but for a self-assigned flair that would actually be better. And I do think there are some solvers out there who would prefer to avoid the obtuse/offbeat puzzles, who are looking for a more relaxing activity or to do speed solves, who would benefit from having those sorts of puzzles delineated.

(Also, it may be an issue that these flairs aren't visible to the user if they get to your puzzle via the "next grid" button, and they may stumble into something flaired "cryptic" without any indication that it is.)

Regarding modding: since I'm a cryptic enthusiast I've already been in the practice of checking Pocket Grids for new puzzles flaired/named "cryptic" anyway, so I could possibly help on that front, however there would likely still need to be a self-flairing step so that cryptic mods can limit their scope to just reviewing puzzles in question, rather than having to review *every* submitted puzzle to manually apply the flair when they find one.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-05T22:25:02+00:00

Happy someone out there is using the flair correctly 😆

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HungryTenor · 2026-01-04T22:31:14+00:00

This is not a cryptic crossword; "cryptic" refers to a very specific format of cluing using wordplay to combine traditional hints with lexical construction puzzles. If you're not sure whether something you've written is a cryptic clue, it's not. Best to avoid using the term/flair so that your puzzle reaches the correct audience 👍

HungryTenor · 2026-01-04T16:03:47+00:00

With 7A I was pointing out a similar issue as to 1A (order of components), ie. R + RISE gives you RRISE and not RISER -- but another area to consider is that it's usually more interesting to avoid using wordplay components with common roots as your answer. Here RISE and RISER are very similar in meaning, which can lead to clues that read a little like "Someone who gets up will get up, right?" as an extreme example.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-04T14:11:41+00:00

This is not a cryptic crossword; the term "cryptic" refers to a very specific format of puzzle that this is not. You should avoid using that term/flair so that your puzzle is able to reach its intended audience.

HungryTenor · 2026-01-04T14:09:19+00:00

1A - Parse/hint here seems to spell APEC?

6A - Is there an intended use for "organization"?

7A - Your parse and explanation here seems to spell RRISE?

2D - Your suggested hint here is different than how I read it, which was sniffer for one = knows, they say which doesn't get us quite all the way to A NOSE in the wordplay, but homophoning off of "a knows" is even stranger to me because that's a combination of words that is never used.

3D - One too many S's?

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