More Cryptic Crossword Clues Trivia Quiz

Answer: adds

The word strange is an indicator for an anagram, so you are looking for four letters that can be rearranged to make a word defined by the other part of the clue, the word totals. If you add some numbers together, you can be said to total them, so rearranging the letters of Dad's (and ignoring the apostrophe) gives ADDS as the solution.

Answer: night

The indicator reported suggests we are looking for homophones - two words that sound the same but have different meanings. There is a chess piece called a knight, and night is the time of day when it is dark. Since the hint says we want a five-letter word, the answer must be NIGHT. (This would be the best guess if the number of letters was not given, since the homophone indicator should be placed next to the homophone, not to the answer.)

Answer: realms

A charade clue does not have indicators; the player must try to find a word that is being defined in two separate ways. Actual is a synonym of real, and ms is an abbreviation for manuscript. Putting them together gives REALMS, the areas controlled by monarchs.

Answer: tragedy

If you attempt something, you may be said to TRY to do it. The indicator include means those letters are going to be written outside the letters of a word that means mature, to produce a larger word that could describe a disaster. Another word for mature is AGED, and a disaster might be described as a TRAGEDY.

Answer: epee

The indicator taken by suggests that we are looking for a hidden word, so we need to scan the clue to find a four-letter word that is either a kind of sword or a member of the nobility. EPEE, a kind of sword used in competitive fencing, fits nicely, and can be seen hiding inside the noblE PEEr.

Answer: allowing

Here is another charade, for which we need to find the two parts of the answer as well as a clue to the whole word. Everyone suggests ALL; those in debt can be said to be OWING. If you are permitting something, you are ALLOWING it.

Answer: sighted

The word sound shows that we need to find homonyms, one that means looked (which should be the answer) and one which means located (which should be the homonym, since it is closest to the indicator). This leads to consideration of sighted and sited. Since the answer has seven letters, SIGHTED can be confirmed as the answer.

This clue could have used another homonym: Looked and referred to sound. This would still give sighted as the answer, but uses cited as the homonym.

Answer: transit

The word queer is commonly used to indicate an anagram, so we need a word or combination of words whose letters can be rearranged to fit something defined by the other part of the clue. The letters of start in can be rearranged to give TRANSIT, which describes the process of moving through an area, of from one place to another.

Answer: error

The words covered up indicate a hidden word, so the clue must be scanned to find five letters in a row that mean a terrorist or a mistake. The word ERROR can be found inside terrorist, and it means a mistake.

Answer: limping

The word caught suggests a word-within-a-word answer. Heather is a common crossword clue for LING (which can also be a fish in the cod family) or erica. A little devil may be called an IMP. Placing the imp inside the ling gives us LIMPING, which could describe someone who is faltering as they walk.