Looking for Minute Cryptic game? Minute Cryptic is a new game like wordle, but in this time you need to solve a daily word with some clues. If you want to play minute cryptic today you must solve the cryptic clue by typing your answer in the grid. Continue reading if you want to see more details about this new game.
How to play minute cryptic?
In Minute Cryptic game you must solve the cryptic clue by typing your answer in the grid. When you need some help, ask for a hint or choose to see a random letter in the grid. As you’re helped, your shown count increases. This is your way of measuring how you did and comparing with friends. The par number indicates the typical amount of help a player might need on this clue. If you go under – well done! If over, maybe this just wasn’t your clue. When you fill the grid, the show letter button changes to check answer, and you can see if you got it right!
Play Minute Cryptic
Minute Cryptic Hints
Minute Cryptic game isn’t about getting it right all the time. Sometimes the best clues are the ones that blow your mind, totally baffle you, and where you pick up new tricks for next time!
P.S. We use the helping letters and hints all the time – they’re your friends.
How to solve Minute Cryptic
Each cryptic clue has a definition and a secret meaning hidden in wordplay, which is made up of signpost(s) and fodder.
The first step to solving a cryptic clue can be identifying which part is fodder, signpost or definition:
- Fodder: a strange combination of words and letters is often a sign of wordplay fodder – you need to use these letters.
- Signposts: words that tell you what to do with the fodder.
- Definition: one or more words that have a direct synonym which is the answer. The definition always appears at the beginning or end of the clue.
Minute Cryptic Examples
Struggle with siesta upsetting the Spanish
The definition is Struggle.
It could also be “the Spanish” (which comes at the end) but it’s hard to think of 7-letter synonyms for “the Spanish”. And you might already be able to think of a synonym for struggle that fits here!
The wordplay is with siesta upsetting the Spanish. How does this work?
- with is fodder and needs us to find a legitimate abbreviation, which in this case is just “w”.
- siesta is fodder and needs us to find a synonym – “rest”
- upsetting is a signpost, telling us to upset or rearrange a word
- Spanish is also a signpost, telling us we need to find the Spanish equivalent for a word.
- the is the fodder for both “Spanish” and “upsetting”. We need to find a Spanish word for “the” – “el” – and rearrange it. This gives us “le”.
All this gives us w + rest + le, or “wrestle” – another word for struggle.
You don’t need to understand every part of the clue to solve Minute Cryptic.
- Sometimes you might identify and solve the definition without understanding the wordplay.
- Or perhaps sometimes you figure out the wordplay without even knowing the word in the answer (it happens!)
- A lot of the time you end up moving between wordplay and definition – understanding part of the wordplay, which gives you a good hint about how the definition works, which then helps you solve the rest of the wordplay.
This means that you can learn as you play: simultaneously getting the answer and increasing your knowledge of words and cryptic clues!
Minute Cryptic Common Signposts
Rearranging:
Probably the easiest and most common, this signpost tells you to rearrange a word or words – to find an anagram.
Common rearranging signposts:
- order
- destroy
- hit
- mix
- sort
Example: Guns of war or any power play (8). By playing with the words “any power”, we can rearrange them into the word “weaponry”, for guns of war.
Inserting/Surrounding:
This signpost indicates that you should put letters or words into another word, or put a word around some letters.
Common inserting/surrounding signposts:
- in
- inside
- entering
- outside
- capturing
- without
Example: Old South American hotel outside California (5). By putting “inn” (for hotel) outside “CA” (for California), we can get “Incan” – a person from an old South American culture.
Shortening:
A shortening signpost directs you to remove part of a word, or keep only part of a word.
Common shortening signposts:
- dropping
- without
- disheartened
- empty
- first
- last
- clothing
Example: Fugitive without a landing strip (6). Here, “without a” instructs us to remove an “a” from runaway (for fugitive), giving “runway” – a landing strip!
Alternating:
This signpost asks you to look for every second letter of a word or multiple words.
Common alternating signposts:
- even
- odd
- regular
- uneven
Example: Type of lettuce cooks regularly discard (3). By discarding regular letters from “cooks”, you get “cos”, a type of lettuce!
Containing:
A containing signposts alerts you to a word contained within multiple words.
Common containing signposts:
- within
- containing
- captured
- among
Example: Warship poised to capture semiaquatic animal (5). Captured within “Warship poised” is “hippo”, a semiaquatic animal!
Translating:
A translating signpost alerts you to Translate a word – usually a very short common word – into another language.
Common translating signposts:
- the French = “le”
- the Spanish = “el”
Pronouncing:
This signpost wants you to look for homophones. Say a fodder word out loud and replace it with another word that sounds like it.
Common pronouncing signposts:
- Say
- Hear
- Report
- Utterly
Example: Owing to some moisture, say (3). “Dew” is some moisture, and sounds like “due”, which means “owing”.
Minute Cryptic Synonyms & Abbreviations
Synonyms:
Often, a word in a clue simply needs to be replaced with one of its synonyms. In our example above, the word “siesta” needed to be replaced with “rest”.
Note: the clue setter is trying to trick you. They might make the clue seem like it’s about a “club” as in a nightclub, but require “putter” – a golf clue – as the synonym.
Abbreviations:
Many words have legitimate abbreviations. In our example above, “with” can be shortened to “w”.
Note: you can’t simply shorten any word to its first letter – only if the dictionary has the abbreviation. Of course, it’s impossible to know all the legitimate abbreviations! But, you do pick up quite a lot over time, and in combination with the definition and other parts of the wordplay, you can learn them as you play!
The first time we saw “check” shortened to “ch” in a clue, we thought that that was a highly unlikely abbreviation. But, it’s a chess notation, and it’s in the dictionary!