Daily cryptic clues

Anagram

The letters of a word or phrase in the clue are rearranged to spell the answer.

How to spot it. Look for a short, odd word next to the fodder plus a signal word telling you the letters are disordered.

Typical indicators: mixed stirred broken wildly roughly about out reformed

Letter selection

The answer is built from certain letters of the words in the clue — first letters, last letters, or every other one.

How to spot it. A signal word says which positions to take; the surrounding words must be read as a list of starting points.

Typical indicators: to begin with first of all initially firstly oddly evenly lastly finally

Hidden word

The answer sits in plain sight, running across two or more consecutive words of the clue.

How to spot it. Read the clue aloud and look for a stretch of letters that spells the answer without moving anything.

Typical indicators: in within part of some of hidden in tucked in

Reversal

A word in the clue is read backwards to give the answer.

How to spot it. A direction or turning word tells you to read something the other way round.

Typical indicators: backwards back over returned reversed going up turned

Charade

The answer is glued together from two or more parts, each clued in order.

How to spot it. There is no signal word — just split the clue into pieces and read the answer off part by part.

Letter as symbol

A single letter stands in for the thing it abbreviates — H for hotel, S for saint, N for north.

How to spot it. One short word in the clue is really just a letter waiting to be written down.

Container

One piece of wordplay is placed inside another.

How to spot it. A word meaning inside, holding, or around tells you which part goes in and which part wraps it.

Typical indicators: in inside holding around entering swallowing taking in

Deletion

A letter or letters are taken away from a word in the clue.

How to spot it. A word meaning without, losing, or endless tells you what to drop — often the head or tail of a word.

Typical indicators: without loses losing dropping endless headless heartless

Homophone

The answer sounds like a word or phrase already in the clue.

How to spot it. A word about hearing, saying, or the radio signals that the letters only need to match by sound.

Typical indicators: we hear they say reportedly sounds like on the radio aloud

Translation

A word in the clue must be translated into another language to give the answer.

How to spot it. A place or nationality word — in Berlin, to a Parisian — tells you which language to reach for.

Typical indicators: in Berlin in Paris in Rome French German to a Parisian abroad

Tipped letter

A letter is turned on its side or upside down, and what it becomes is the answer.

How to spot it. A word about tipping, turning, or laying flat applies to a single printed letter.

Typical indicators: laid sideways tipped over on its side upside down

Double definition

The clue is simply two definitions of the same answer, side by side, with no wordplay at all.

How to spot it. Both halves of the clue read as independent meanings of one word; there is nothing to rearrange.

Glyph rebus

A digit or symbol inside a word is read out loud as the letters it stands for — 4gotten says forgotten.

How to spot it. Look for a chat-style digit or shorthand buried in a word, then say the whole thing aloud.

Substitution

One letter of a word in the clue is swapped for another, and the change produces the answer.

How to spot it. The clue usually states the swap outright, or signals it with a phrase about a change in the middle.

Typical indicators: with a change of heart one letter changed R for F swapping