Cryptic Crosswords


Well hello word watchers, how nice to see you!

The holy grail of puzzle solving is completing the most challenging cryptic crossword puzzles. In America this is probably the New York Times puzzles while in Britain we treat The Times and The Telegraph puzzles with similar prestige.

If you want to be great at cryptic crosswords you need four things, the first two are relatively obvious, you need a good grasp of the English language and some decent general knowledge. These will stand you in good stead for standard crosswords, but for cryptic crosswords you need something else, you need to learn a whole new language. The language of the cryptic crossword, fans of the genre often call this made up language Crosswordese. It is filled with puns, double meanings and mysterious coding, and it is this that you need to learn if you are to be a great crossword solver.

The fourth thing you need of course, is practice, as much of it as you can get. In our cryptic crossword blog posts you'll have lots of opportunity to practice solving individual clues and work towards solving The Wandering Puzzler's very own beginners cryptic crossword.

You'll find a copy of the gross word at the bottom of the page which you can print out to work on, but immediately below are links to our posts on cryptic crosswords to set you on your way.

Good Luck and Keep Puzzling

What Kinds of clues are covered?

Here are links to the different blog posts on cryptic crosswords.

Hidden
Words
Double
Definitions
Anagrams and
Reversals









Alternating and
Initial Letters
Simple
Charades
Sounds Like
Charades


Cryptic
Spoonerisms

Pure
Cryptics


Which clues are in which posts?

Here's a guide to which clues are in which post. Just find which of these images has the clue highlighted, then click on the links above to go to the post.

Double Definitions
Hidden Words


Anagrams and Reversals

Pure Cryptics

Initial and Alternating Letters

Charades

Sounds Like

Spoonerisms


Where can I find the answer to a video clue?

You can find the answers to the Wandering Puzzler Video clues over at the website.

Where can I get a copy of the grid?

You can print this one out to keep. If you don't have a printer, some squared paper or a grid you've hand drawn will work just as well. 


The Wandering Puzzler
Beginners Cryptic Crossword






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