Play Along with This Cryptic Crossword

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined by that dashing quiz master, John Chaneski.

Hey, John, how’s New York?

John, come back.

Hey, Grant.

Yes, I’m dashing all over the place.

I’ve got to stop myself and bring myself back to tell you that I have quite a quiz for you today.

You know, I’ve mentioned before that I consider cryptic crosswords, what the British call crosswords, to be the golden standard of word puzzles, and it’s going to be cryptic class again today.

Now, in each cryptic puzzle, each clue is a distinct puzzle in and of itself. It contains both a definition of the answer and a description of it through wordplay.

Now, part of the puzzle is figuring out which part is the definition, which part is the wordplay, and also what specific type of wordplay is in use.

Today, we’re going to look at charade clues.

In a charade cryptic clue, the wordplay clues different parts of the word.

Now, here’s an example.

Scarlet single is overhauled. This is a six-letter word.

Now, that would charade the word redone.

Scarlet is? Anybody?

Red.

Single is? One.

One.

One.

So, scarlet single, red, one. Put together is overhauled.

Redone. All right. Now, sometimes in a cryptic clue, the indefinite article A just stands for itself.

Here’s an example. A barrier for first man. Now, can you guess what that might charade?

First man. A dam. Adam. Right. A is just A. Barrier is dam. A dam, you get first man, which is Adam.

Right. Now, in the following clues, just remember two things. I’ll always put the word play first to make it simple.

And the article A will always stand for the letter A.

Here we go.

A boxing match is concerning.

About.

A, B, O.

Yes, about.

How did you get that, Grant?

A boxing match is about, B-O-U-T, and concerning.

Something is concerning something else. It is about it.

Right.

So the A in the clue is A, and then boxing match is about.

Very good.

Here’s the next one.

A Catholic ritual to bring together.

A mass.

A mass, yeah.

How’d you get that?

So you amass wealth, you bring your money together, and mass is a religious ceremony in a Catholic church.

Right, preceded with the article A.

Right.

How about this one?

A flower got out of bed.

A rose.

A rose, right.

A and rose.

A rose.

You guys are doing very well.

Here’s the next one.

A Spanish chicken for Greek god.

Very good.

Apollo and a pollo.

Apollo, right.

Apollo.

Apollo and pollo.

And pollo.

Apollo and pollo.

That’s awesome.

Nice.

You guys are doing great.

You know, I’m just going to switch it up a little.

A little.

Remember, the wordplay is first. The definition follows.

And A stands for A.

Here’s the next one.

Deep hole, a spot for falafel.

Well.

It could be well.

It could be pit.

Pita?

Pita?

Pita.

Perfect.

Pit plus A is pita.

Yes, very good.

Here’s the last one.

Matriarch, a New York City institution.

Like a museum, you mean?

Mm-one of them.

How about MoMA?

MoMA, yes.

How’d you get it?

Mom and A.

Mom and A.

MoMA, yes, very good.

You guys did very well in cryptic charades.

The A, the A class.

You guys get an A.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

I don’t think we’ve done this one on the show before.

No, those are great.

This is good, John.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Glad you liked it.

Hey, you know, Martha and I love to do puzzles on the show, and, you know, if you’ve got something you think that we can’t figure out and we can’t Google, send it along in email to words@waywordradio.org.

Or just try us with your questions about language and literature and books and writing and everything like that, slang and new words, on the phone, 877-929-9673.