Cryptics!
A guide to cryptic crossword clues. Just because.
Cryptic Crosswords.
The basics.
Basically, cryptic clues include both a synonym for the word needed, and a cryptic way to form the needed word. That means that in any cryptic crossword clue, the needed word will be referred to twice. Because of this, the synonym of the word is often a very simple word which can often have more than one meaning/usage (ie. it might be used as a verb OR a noun). The beauty of cryptic crosswords, as opposed to quick, is that you'll always know if your answer is correct as you have two ways of checking it.
Another important point to remember is that in every cryptic clue, the word synonymous to the word needed is found at the start or the end of the clue. Otherwise it would interfere with the cryptic description.
Between the two descriptions you'll often find a joining word, however this isn't guaranteed. Since the cryptic part describes the word, the joining words might be 'is', 'becomes', 'like', 'appears as', etc. The 'is' can be hidden in a contraction, sometimes even appearing as a possessive. It isn't necessary to spot these joining words however.
Clearly it'd be pretty difficult solving a cryptic crossword given only the quick description. So! Onto the cryptic part of the clue.
Cryptic descriptions.
Firstly, note a cryptic crossword clue isn't just a random conjunction of two word clues (one quick, one cryptic). In fact, clues are often rewritten so that they make as much sense as possible - the more flowing the clue, the harder it is to spot the two descriptions. As such, cryptics often use words, especially the synonymous word, rather loosely.
There are several different ways a cryptic's clues can be construed. Often in crosswords it'll be found the clues are an amalgamation of several different types of these clues, but the general idea is the same. Onwards!
Double Meanings.
These are the easiest crossword clues. In these, the cryptic clue acts as another synonym, and these clues are strictly used for homographic words.
Sometimes, the cryptic description (which is usually indistinguishable from the word's synonym) will be more than one word. It can also describe the word not *quite* homographically, but somewhat literally, as in examples three, four and five. Often words like 'again' will indicate a 're-' prefix, whilst a word with the prefix 'de-' might have its cryptic description refer to its stem's opposite. Typically these clues end in a question mark, since the clue doesn't exactly act as a double meaning.
Examples:
Conquer rhythm. (4) - Both words describe the word 'beat'.
Throw holder of food. (4) - Both 'throw' and 'holder of food' mean 'bowl'.
Write name again and quit? (6) - To quit is to 'resign', as is to rewrite a name.
Darken pleasure? (7) - Here the answer is 'delight', since this is synonymous with 'pleasure', and to darken is to remove ('de-') light.
Blue feathers in the tips? (4,2,3,5) - 'Feathers' being 'down', and 'tips' being 'dumps', 'down in the dumps' comes from the cryptic clue, also meaning 'blue'.
Homophones.
Similar to homograph representation, the cryptic clue for a homophone refers to a word that sounds like the required word. To show the clue indicates a synonym, signifying words such as 'sounds', 'heard', and 'said' are used (when something is said, the spelling isn't recognised). The homophone can be either the word printed in the clue, or a homophone of the clue's synonym (see example one compared to example two). The latter is more often seen.
These can also refer to more than one word, in which case all words will almost always be the ones needed to be said aloud.
Also, sometimes words that sound like letters can be used to describe letters (eg. 'why' sounds like the letter Y). Additional to the 'sound' clues, these can include 'casually', 'simply', etc. They're often used as part of a bigger clue.
Examples:
Captured sounds of court. (6) - The 'sounds' refers to the homophone of 'court'; 'caught', a word meaning 'captured'.
Said to have swallowed a number! (5) - The trigger word 'said' refers to 'swallowed', synonymous with 'ate'. 'Ate' is a homophone of 'eight', which is indeed a number.
Pair o' souls heard the umbrellas. (8) - 'Pair o' souls', when heard, sounds like 'parasols', which also means 'umbrellas'.
You casually are the 21st letter of the alphabet. (1) - 'You' casually sounds like the letter U.
Words within words.
These clues refer to words that can be found within a sentence, almost always over the space of two words. As such, punctuation and spacing is ignored in these. Signifying such clues are words such as 'in', 'inside' and 'holds'. In the examples below, the word needed is underlined.
As a side note, these are often actually quite difficult to find, as the trigger words can also refer to putting a word within a word (see 'word manipulation'), and usage is pretty rare. So keep an eye out!
The crab bites, holding a hare. (6) - The synonym being 'hare' for 'rabbit'.
Holiday found in feast error. (6) - Since Easter is a holiday.
Point in wasp I removed. - Where 'point' refers to 'spire'.
Word Manipulation.
Word manipulation is a simple way of making words. Often it simply involves putting two words together using trigger words like 'and' (example one), or putting a word within another using words like 'in', 'holds', 'eats' (example two). Alternatively a word can be said to be put around another word, using words such as 'surrounding', 'eating', 'about', etc.
The words needed are almost always not mentioned in the clue, but rather their synonyms.
Examples:
Rug vehicle runs into domestic animal. (6) - A vehicle (car) with a domestic animal (pet) gives a rug; 'carpet'.
Vegetable jug in the dump. (6) - The answer is 'turnip', a vegetable formed from putting the word 'urn' ('jug') in the word 'tip' ('dump').
Anagrams.
Anagrams are a very easy way to get around a tricky word, so you'll often find these in the very long words of a crossword (10-15 letters, or more depending on the crossword's size).
Anagrams are often signified by a word describing something that's 'mixed up'. The most common examples are 'drunk', 'crazy', 'mixed', 'lost', 'sick', 'doctored', 'out', 'disrupted', 'partying', 'repaired' and 'replaced' (the letters are reordered). It's usually easy to spot an anagram clue if you look for synonyms of these words. If you think you've found an anagram clue, check to see if the word it's suggesting should be reordered has the same number of letters as the crossword word. Keep in mind that since clues are often several different cryptic descriptions stuck together, this won't always be the case, but it's a helpful trick.
A special case of anagrams is when a word is reversed. In this case, often the signifying words is something along the lines of 'returned', 'looked back', etc. In down clues, the reversed word might also be described as 'looking up' or simply 'up' (as reading a down clue up will naturally reverse it.)
Examples:
Drunk Sean is rational. (4) - 'Sean' rearranged gives 'sane', meaning 'rational'.
A speaker, she replaces great playwright! (11) 'A speaker she' rearranged gives 'Shakespeare', a playwright.
Ward turns back on sketch (4) - Here the 'turns back' refers to reversing the word 'ward'. Turning it around gives 'draw', which is indeed another word for 'sketch'. Note here the clue 'sketch' is probably a noun in the clue, but a verb as the needed word's synonym.
Abbreviations.
Abbreviations are used often in cryptics when the clue is one or two letters short of that required. As such, abbreviations are almost always used as parts of clues, not the whole.
Common abbreviations are usually described by the words abbreviated, or else a recognisable description of these words. Sometimes the word 'short' or 'little' is used to signify a word(s) should be truncated, but this is not necessary. The following things can be abbreviated:
NAMES: eg. Elizabeth > Liz/Beth, Robert > Bob, Richard > Dick.
STATES: Southern Australia > SA, California > CA.
COMPASS POINTS: eg. north > N, point/direction > N/S/E/W or combinations.
ROMAN NUMERALS: eg. one > I, five > V, ten > X, 50 > L, 100 > C, 500 > D, 1000 > M. Note sometimes crosswords will see '50' as L, sometimes as VO, for example.
ELEMENTS: eg. hydrogen > H, helium > He, etc. Beware gold > Au, silver > Ag, iron > Fe, copper > Cu, tin > Sn, antimony > Sb, tungsten > W, sodium > Na, potassium > K.
TIME: eg. present/today > AD (anno domini), 'long ago' > BC, morning > AM, afternoon/nighttime > PM.
MUSIC NOTATION: eg. soft > p(iano), loud > f(orte). Similarly, very loud/soft > ff/pp, louder/softer > cres(c)./dim., slower > rit./rall., metronome > MM, etc.
SOLFA: eg. note/pitch > do/re/mi/fa/so/la/ti and variations. In order, the notes' names are tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note. These are rare however.
OTHER COMMON ACRONYMS: eg. 'and so on' > etc., 'for example' > eg., Queen > HRM (Her Royal Majesty)/ER (Elizabeth Regina), ship > SS, (American) soldier > GI, right/left > R/L, learner/practicer > L/P (car-plates), current > AC/DC (electrical), way/street > st., concerning/about > re., alien > ET, work > Op. (opus), etc!
Sometimes you'll have to think laterally for certain abbreviations; eg. 'unknown' could be X or Y (pronumeral used in algebra); 'time' might be the letter T (think 'timeout'); 'shirt' might also be T (T-shirt); 'love' often refers to the letter O ('love' in tennis means zero points), as will similar words ('no', 'nothing', 'none', etc.)
Examples:
1009 stir. (3) - 1009 in Roman numerals gives 'MIX', to stir.
Has embroidered four points. (3) - Four compass points give 'SEWN', meaning 'has embroidered'.
Specific Letters in Words.
Some clues refer to letters within words. They can refer to the first letter of a word (trigger words: 'first', 'initial', 'capital', 'leader', 'head'), the last letter ('end', 'final', 'ultimate', 'tail'), both first and last letters ('surroundings', 'outskirts', 'extremes', 'ends'), the middle letter(s) ('middle', 'centre', 'stomach'), or any other letters ('second', 'third', etc.) Similarly, words such as 'beheaded' refer to a word without its first letter, 'detail' or 'endless' can mean a word without its last letter, etc.
Also, these same clues can be used to have a letter removed from a word. A clue such as example three is a good example.
Keep an eye out for 'the first/central/last', which can often not refer to the following word but to 'the' itself (thus the respective letters would be T, H and E).
Sometimes every second letter of a word might be needed. In this case the clue will mention 'alternating', 'every second one', or more specifically, 'oddly'/'unevenly' for every odd letter (the first, third, fifth...), or 'even'/'not odd' for every even letter (the second, fourth, sixth...). These can run over more than one word.
Finally, a specific form of letter switching known as 'spoonerising' occurs when the first letters of two words are switched. Note they are switched phonetically, so the sounds might be modified (eg. 'rough tight' > 'tough write'). 'Spoonerise' is the only word used to refer to this switch; sometimes cryptics also refer to the animate noun 'Spooner'.
Examples:
Limitless caper is a monkey! (3) - Limitless = without boundaries, so the C and R are taken from 'caper' to give 'ape', a monkey.
Sheep initially runs around mountain. (3) - runs around mountain 'initially', ie. the start of each word, gives 'ram', a sheep.
Cart lost the first vehicle. (3) - Here 'lost the first' doesn't refer to losing the first letter of 'cart', since 'art' is not a vehicle. Rather, 'the first' refers to the first letter of 'the', ie. T, being taken from the word 'cart'. This gives us 'car', a vehicle.
Satire-imps oddly remove clothing. (5) - Oddly refers to the odd letters of 'satire-imps', spelling out 'strip', meaning 'remove clothing'. Just don't ask what satire-imps are o_O
Spooners flutter by animal. (9) - Spoonerising 'flutter by' gives 'butterfly', an animal.
Random things.
- 'Article' often refers to the english definite/indefinite articles, ie. 'a'/'an'/'the'.
- Clues such as 'the French'/'an Italian' mean the word 'the' in the language mentioned. Thus The French note. (2) would be 'la', both a solfa note and 'the' in French. It's pretty rare to get any other words in other languages.
- Famous persons are often mentioned in cryptic clues; usually their first name is required. The most common one is 'Capone' indicating 'Al', though there are others.
- Also, sometimes nouns appear as names in the clue's context - eg. as well as a name, 'Bill' is also an account of owed money or a duck's beak.
- Sometimes a clue might say 'reads back the same', or something similar. This simply tells you the word is palindromic.
- Clues can end in three dots ('...'), with the clue immediately after beginning with another three dots. This has NOTHING to do with the clues, it's simply put in to make the two clues make more sense as nonsense sentences (say that five times fast!)
- When a clue refers to another clue (eg. '28-down does such-and-such'), the clue mentioned refers to its answer, not the clue iteslf.
Putting it together.
Note cryptic crossword clues don't usually use just one type of cryptic clue. Some, such as double meanings, homophones, words within words, word manipulations and anagrams can stand alone, but letter references and abbreviations are almost always found as part of a bigger cryptic clue. To figure out what part of a cryptic clue is what, just look out for the 'trigger' words.
Here're some examples from real crosswords!!
1. Get bigger equipment for a weaver. (4)
2. Unable to see the shutters? (5)
3. Double the late bellman. (4,6)
4. More sacred dowser. (7)
5. Continue innings with stick. (5)
6. Ascetic may finish off woman's glove. (6)
7. Since salver went wandering. (6)
8. Little Richard wearing green top inspires a humorous verse. (8)
9. Dry punster, her editor! (8)
10. Real gold, then endless tin and carbon. (9)
11. Loveless, inferior surrounding furniture is easy to move. (8)
12. Somewhere in Italy I leave a shadow. (5)
13. The first sorceress to have a spasm. (6)
14. Hussy swallowed oxygen for card. (5)
15. Mansion with an interior flavour. (7)
16. Swiss singer and shouter is about to overdose. (8)
17. The DNA of half-generals? (4)
18. Shirt tucked into macho's rippled six-pack. (7)
19. Girl discovered in heathen ideology. (4)
20. In illicit Adelaide is a church. (7)
21. From within Spain, the French lose colour. (4)
22. Even fat camper gets to peak. (4)
23. Boil bilge? Not even in the book! (5)
24. Gambolled without the odd fit. (4)
25. Copied timid tea party. (8)
26. I free a cat wandering in the canteen. (9)
27. Heard conflicted stonghold. (4)
28. Ventilate sound of son who swallowed. (6)
ANSWERS:
1. LOOM - Double meaning
2. BLIND - Double meaning
3. DEAD RINGER - Double meaning
4. DIVINER - Double meaning ('more' gives an '-er' suffix)
5. BATON - Word manipulation (bat + on)
6. HERMIT - Word manipulation (her + mit)
7. ASTRAY - Word manipulation (as + tray)
8. LIMERICK - Abbreviation (of Richard), word manipulation ('top' here means 'lime' goes on top of 'Rick')
9. WITHERED - Word manipulation, abbreviation (wit + her + ed.)
10. AUTHENTIC - Abbreviation (gold is Au, carbon is C), letter from word ('endless' refers to 'tin' without its last letter), word manipulation (Au + then + ti + C)
11. PORTABLE - Letter from word ('loveless' refers to 'poor' without an O), word manipulation (por + table)
12. UMBRA - Letter from word ('I' is taken from 'Umbria')
13. TWITCH - Letter onto word (T (the first) + 'witch')
14. TAROT - Abbreviation (oxygen is O), letter into a word (tart + O)
15. VANILLA - Word manipulation ('an' into 'villa')
16. YODELLER - Abbreviation ('overdose' is OD), word holding word (YELLER holds OD)
17. GENE - Letters from word (half of 'generals')
18. STOMACH - Abbreviation ('shirt' is T), anagram ('T + machos' mixed)
19. ENID - Word within words ('heathen ideology')
20. CITADEL - Word within words ('illicit Adelaide')
21. PALE - Letters from word (PA from 'Spain'), 'the' in French (le), word manipulation (PA + le)
22. ACME - Alternate letters (even letters of 'fat camper')
23. BIBLE - Alternate letters (odd [not even] letters of 'boil bilge')
24. ABLE - Alternate letters (even letters [odd letters removed] of 'gambolled')
25. IMITATED - Anagram ('timid tea' mixed)
26. CAFETERIA - Anagram ('I free a cat' mixed)
27. FORT - Homophone (of 'fought' (conflicted))
28. AERATE - Homophone (of 'heir' (son)), word manipulation ('aer' + ate)
Fin! Now try my latest crossword! =P
Cryptic Crosswords.
The basics.
Basically, cryptic clues include both a synonym for the word needed, and a cryptic way to form the needed word. That means that in any cryptic crossword clue, the needed word will be referred to twice. Because of this, the synonym of the word is often a very simple word which can often have more than one meaning/usage (ie. it might be used as a verb OR a noun). The beauty of cryptic crosswords, as opposed to quick, is that you'll always know if your answer is correct as you have two ways of checking it.
Another important point to remember is that in every cryptic clue, the word synonymous to the word needed is found at the start or the end of the clue. Otherwise it would interfere with the cryptic description.
Between the two descriptions you'll often find a joining word, however this isn't guaranteed. Since the cryptic part describes the word, the joining words might be 'is', 'becomes', 'like', 'appears as', etc. The 'is' can be hidden in a contraction, sometimes even appearing as a possessive. It isn't necessary to spot these joining words however.
Clearly it'd be pretty difficult solving a cryptic crossword given only the quick description. So! Onto the cryptic part of the clue.
Cryptic descriptions.
Firstly, note a cryptic crossword clue isn't just a random conjunction of two word clues (one quick, one cryptic). In fact, clues are often rewritten so that they make as much sense as possible - the more flowing the clue, the harder it is to spot the two descriptions. As such, cryptics often use words, especially the synonymous word, rather loosely.
There are several different ways a cryptic's clues can be construed. Often in crosswords it'll be found the clues are an amalgamation of several different types of these clues, but the general idea is the same. Onwards!
Double Meanings.
These are the easiest crossword clues. In these, the cryptic clue acts as another synonym, and these clues are strictly used for homographic words.
Sometimes, the cryptic description (which is usually indistinguishable from the word's synonym) will be more than one word. It can also describe the word not *quite* homographically, but somewhat literally, as in examples three, four and five. Often words like 'again' will indicate a 're-' prefix, whilst a word with the prefix 'de-' might have its cryptic description refer to its stem's opposite. Typically these clues end in a question mark, since the clue doesn't exactly act as a double meaning.
Examples:
Homophones.
Similar to homograph representation, the cryptic clue for a homophone refers to a word that sounds like the required word. To show the clue indicates a synonym, signifying words such as 'sounds', 'heard', and 'said' are used (when something is said, the spelling isn't recognised). The homophone can be either the word printed in the clue, or a homophone of the clue's synonym (see example one compared to example two). The latter is more often seen.
These can also refer to more than one word, in which case all words will almost always be the ones needed to be said aloud.
Also, sometimes words that sound like letters can be used to describe letters (eg. 'why' sounds like the letter Y). Additional to the 'sound' clues, these can include 'casually', 'simply', etc. They're often used as part of a bigger clue.
Examples:
Words within words.
These clues refer to words that can be found within a sentence, almost always over the space of two words. As such, punctuation and spacing is ignored in these. Signifying such clues are words such as 'in', 'inside' and 'holds'. In the examples below, the word needed is underlined.
As a side note, these are often actually quite difficult to find, as the trigger words can also refer to putting a word within a word (see 'word manipulation'), and usage is pretty rare. So keep an eye out!
Word Manipulation.
Word manipulation is a simple way of making words. Often it simply involves putting two words together using trigger words like 'and' (example one), or putting a word within another using words like 'in', 'holds', 'eats' (example two). Alternatively a word can be said to be put around another word, using words such as 'surrounding', 'eating', 'about', etc.
The words needed are almost always not mentioned in the clue, but rather their synonyms.
Examples:
Anagrams.
Anagrams are a very easy way to get around a tricky word, so you'll often find these in the very long words of a crossword (10-15 letters, or more depending on the crossword's size).
Anagrams are often signified by a word describing something that's 'mixed up'. The most common examples are 'drunk', 'crazy', 'mixed', 'lost', 'sick', 'doctored', 'out', 'disrupted', 'partying', 'repaired' and 'replaced' (the letters are reordered). It's usually easy to spot an anagram clue if you look for synonyms of these words. If you think you've found an anagram clue, check to see if the word it's suggesting should be reordered has the same number of letters as the crossword word. Keep in mind that since clues are often several different cryptic descriptions stuck together, this won't always be the case, but it's a helpful trick.
A special case of anagrams is when a word is reversed. In this case, often the signifying words is something along the lines of 'returned', 'looked back', etc. In down clues, the reversed word might also be described as 'looking up' or simply 'up' (as reading a down clue up will naturally reverse it.)
Examples:
Abbreviations.
Abbreviations are used often in cryptics when the clue is one or two letters short of that required. As such, abbreviations are almost always used as parts of clues, not the whole.
Common abbreviations are usually described by the words abbreviated, or else a recognisable description of these words. Sometimes the word 'short' or 'little' is used to signify a word(s) should be truncated, but this is not necessary. The following things can be abbreviated:
NAMES: eg. Elizabeth > Liz/Beth, Robert > Bob, Richard > Dick.
STATES: Southern Australia > SA, California > CA.
COMPASS POINTS: eg. north > N, point/direction > N/S/E/W or combinations.
ROMAN NUMERALS: eg. one > I, five > V, ten > X, 50 > L, 100 > C, 500 > D, 1000 > M. Note sometimes crosswords will see '50' as L, sometimes as VO, for example.
ELEMENTS: eg. hydrogen > H, helium > He, etc. Beware gold > Au, silver > Ag, iron > Fe, copper > Cu, tin > Sn, antimony > Sb, tungsten > W, sodium > Na, potassium > K.
TIME: eg. present/today > AD (anno domini), 'long ago' > BC, morning > AM, afternoon/nighttime > PM.
MUSIC NOTATION: eg. soft > p(iano), loud > f(orte). Similarly, very loud/soft > ff/pp, louder/softer > cres(c)./dim., slower > rit./rall., metronome > MM, etc.
SOLFA: eg. note/pitch > do/re/mi/fa/so/la/ti and variations. In order, the notes' names are tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note. These are rare however.
OTHER COMMON ACRONYMS: eg. 'and so on' > etc., 'for example' > eg., Queen > HRM (Her Royal Majesty)/ER (Elizabeth Regina), ship > SS, (American) soldier > GI, right/left > R/L, learner/practicer > L/P (car-plates), current > AC/DC (electrical), way/street > st., concerning/about > re., alien > ET, work > Op. (opus), etc!
Sometimes you'll have to think laterally for certain abbreviations; eg. 'unknown' could be X or Y (pronumeral used in algebra); 'time' might be the letter T (think 'timeout'); 'shirt' might also be T (T-shirt); 'love' often refers to the letter O ('love' in tennis means zero points), as will similar words ('no', 'nothing', 'none', etc.)
Examples:
Specific Letters in Words.
Some clues refer to letters within words. They can refer to the first letter of a word (trigger words: 'first', 'initial', 'capital', 'leader', 'head'), the last letter ('end', 'final', 'ultimate', 'tail'), both first and last letters ('surroundings', 'outskirts', 'extremes', 'ends'), the middle letter(s) ('middle', 'centre', 'stomach'), or any other letters ('second', 'third', etc.) Similarly, words such as 'beheaded' refer to a word without its first letter, 'detail' or 'endless' can mean a word without its last letter, etc.
Also, these same clues can be used to have a letter removed from a word. A clue such as example three is a good example.
Keep an eye out for 'the first/central/last', which can often not refer to the following word but to 'the' itself (thus the respective letters would be T, H and E).
Sometimes every second letter of a word might be needed. In this case the clue will mention 'alternating', 'every second one', or more specifically, 'oddly'/'unevenly' for every odd letter (the first, third, fifth...), or 'even'/'not odd' for every even letter (the second, fourth, sixth...). These can run over more than one word.
Finally, a specific form of letter switching known as 'spoonerising' occurs when the first letters of two words are switched. Note they are switched phonetically, so the sounds might be modified (eg. 'rough tight' > 'tough write'). 'Spoonerise' is the only word used to refer to this switch; sometimes cryptics also refer to the animate noun 'Spooner'.
Examples:
Random things.
- 'Article' often refers to the english definite/indefinite articles, ie. 'a'/'an'/'the'.
- Clues such as 'the French'/'an Italian' mean the word 'the' in the language mentioned. Thus The French note. (2) would be 'la', both a solfa note and 'the' in French. It's pretty rare to get any other words in other languages.
- Famous persons are often mentioned in cryptic clues; usually their first name is required. The most common one is 'Capone' indicating 'Al', though there are others.
- Also, sometimes nouns appear as names in the clue's context - eg. as well as a name, 'Bill' is also an account of owed money or a duck's beak.
- Sometimes a clue might say 'reads back the same', or something similar. This simply tells you the word is palindromic.
- Clues can end in three dots ('...'), with the clue immediately after beginning with another three dots. This has NOTHING to do with the clues, it's simply put in to make the two clues make more sense as nonsense sentences (say that five times fast!)
- When a clue refers to another clue (eg. '28-down does such-and-such'), the clue mentioned refers to its answer, not the clue iteslf.
Putting it together.
Note cryptic crossword clues don't usually use just one type of cryptic clue. Some, such as double meanings, homophones, words within words, word manipulations and anagrams can stand alone, but letter references and abbreviations are almost always found as part of a bigger cryptic clue. To figure out what part of a cryptic clue is what, just look out for the 'trigger' words.
Here're some examples from real crosswords!!
1. Get bigger equipment for a weaver. (4)
2. Unable to see the shutters? (5)
3. Double the late bellman. (4,6)
4. More sacred dowser. (7)
5. Continue innings with stick. (5)
6. Ascetic may finish off woman's glove. (6)
7. Since salver went wandering. (6)
8. Little Richard wearing green top inspires a humorous verse. (8)
9. Dry punster, her editor! (8)
10. Real gold, then endless tin and carbon. (9)
11. Loveless, inferior surrounding furniture is easy to move. (8)
12. Somewhere in Italy I leave a shadow. (5)
13. The first sorceress to have a spasm. (6)
14. Hussy swallowed oxygen for card. (5)
15. Mansion with an interior flavour. (7)
16. Swiss singer and shouter is about to overdose. (8)
17. The DNA of half-generals? (4)
18. Shirt tucked into macho's rippled six-pack. (7)
19. Girl discovered in heathen ideology. (4)
20. In illicit Adelaide is a church. (7)
21. From within Spain, the French lose colour. (4)
22. Even fat camper gets to peak. (4)
23. Boil bilge? Not even in the book! (5)
24. Gambolled without the odd fit. (4)
25. Copied timid tea party. (8)
26. I free a cat wandering in the canteen. (9)
27. Heard conflicted stonghold. (4)
28. Ventilate sound of son who swallowed. (6)
ANSWERS:
1. LOOM - Double meaning
2. BLIND - Double meaning
3. DEAD RINGER - Double meaning
4. DIVINER - Double meaning ('more' gives an '-er' suffix)
5. BATON - Word manipulation (bat + on)
6. HERMIT - Word manipulation (her + mit)
7. ASTRAY - Word manipulation (as + tray)
8. LIMERICK - Abbreviation (of Richard), word manipulation ('top' here means 'lime' goes on top of 'Rick')
9. WITHERED - Word manipulation, abbreviation (wit + her + ed.)
10. AUTHENTIC - Abbreviation (gold is Au, carbon is C), letter from word ('endless' refers to 'tin' without its last letter), word manipulation (Au + then + ti + C)
11. PORTABLE - Letter from word ('loveless' refers to 'poor' without an O), word manipulation (por + table)
12. UMBRA - Letter from word ('I' is taken from 'Umbria')
13. TWITCH - Letter onto word (T (the first) + 'witch')
14. TAROT - Abbreviation (oxygen is O), letter into a word (tart + O)
15. VANILLA - Word manipulation ('an' into 'villa')
16. YODELLER - Abbreviation ('overdose' is OD), word holding word (YELLER holds OD)
17. GENE - Letters from word (half of 'generals')
18. STOMACH - Abbreviation ('shirt' is T), anagram ('T + machos' mixed)
19. ENID - Word within words ('heathen ideology')
20. CITADEL - Word within words ('illicit Adelaide')
21. PALE - Letters from word (PA from 'Spain'), 'the' in French (le), word manipulation (PA + le)
22. ACME - Alternate letters (even letters of 'fat camper')
23. BIBLE - Alternate letters (odd [not even] letters of 'boil bilge')
24. ABLE - Alternate letters (even letters [odd letters removed] of 'gambolled')
25. IMITATED - Anagram ('timid tea' mixed)
26. CAFETERIA - Anagram ('I free a cat' mixed)
27. FORT - Homophone (of 'fought' (conflicted))
28. AERATE - Homophone (of 'heir' (son)), word manipulation ('aer' + ate)
Fin! Now try my latest crossword! =P