Be warned- cryptics are not for the faint of heart. These puzzles are confusing, convoluted, frustrating, and absolutely mind-boggling, to beginner and veteran puzzlers alike. There so many different ways to interpret and solve these puzzles; even after you’re told the answer to a particularly difficult cryptic, you still might stare at the clues wondering, “how on earth did they get that from that?” Intrigued? Me too.

At first glance, the British cryptic looks a lot like the American crossword. However, all of the clues are like riddles, with more than nine different ways to interpret them. There are typically two parts to a given clue: the “cryptic” (the riddle and answer) and the “straight” (a synonym for the riddle’s solution). The straight always includes either the first or the last word of the clue, but you don’t know which one. Here are some of the many ways to solve cryptics, with examples from The New Yorker:

1. Anagrams– indicator words usually connote violence (ruined, shattered), altered states (crazy, drunk), or reconfiguration (mixed, remade, new). EX: in the cryptic “Honestly crazy, in secret”, the word “crazy” suggests the word “honestly” should be anagrammed. This means that “in secret” must be the straight: a synonym for an anagram of honestly. In this case, the answer is “on the sly” (an anagram of “honestly” and a synonym for “in secret”).
2. Hidden Word– words like “includes”, “hidden”, or “has” indicate that the answer is a sequence of letters hidden inside the clue. EX: in the cryptic “Error concealed by city police”, the word “error” is the straight. Another word for “error” is “typo”, which can be found in the middle of “city police” (ciTY POlice).
3. Homophones: indicator words usually relate to sound and speech, like “heard” or “said”. EX: in the cryptic “Stringed instrument untruthful person heard”, another word for an untruthful person is a “liar”, and a homophone of liar is “lyre”, or in other words, a stringed instrument. So “lyre” is the answer.
4. Double Definition: instead of having both a cryptic and a straight part, this type of clue has two straights, both definitions of the same answer. These are the only types of clues that are never combined with other wordplay. EX: In “Wear out an important part of a car”, a synonym for “wear out” is the verb “tire”, and “an important part of a car” is also a “tire”.
5. Assemblage: this is a tricky one; there aren’t usually any indicator words for these clues. You have to break the answer into chunks and piece them together for your answer. EX: In the cryptic “Put down prosecutor’s animals”, “put down” is swapped out for “pan” and “prosecutor’s” is swapped out for “DAs” (as in district attorneys). Putting “pan” and “DAs” together gets you “pandas”, or another word for “animals”, this clue’s straight.
6. Deletion: indicators include words like “headless”, “endlessly”, “first”, or “half”- a prompt to remove the start or end of a word. EX: In “A Creed of Christianity is 75% niceness”, 75% of the word “niceness” (6 of the 8 letters) is “nicene”, which is a creed of Christianity, the straight.
7. Reversals: indicated by words like “turned back” or “reversed”, these clues are exactly what they sound like- just words in reverse. EX: In “Returned beer of kings”, “of kings” is the straight and “returned beer” is the cryptic. A type of beer is called lager, which, when reversed, becomes “regal”, a word meaning “of kings”.
8. Container: another especially confusing type of clue. Indicators like “within” or “surrounding” prompt you to put one word inside another. EX: In “Horse in South Dakota is covered with spangles”, another word for “horse” is “equine”, and an abbreviation for “South Dakota” is “SD”. If you put “equine” in “SD”, you get the word “sequined” (SequineD), which is a synonym for the straight “with spangles”.
9. Bits and Pieces: this type of clue has you select the first letters from a series of words. EX: In “House of Pain debuts ‘Jump Around'”, the first letters of “house of pain” are h, o, and p, which form “hop”. Hop is a synonym for “jump around”, which is the straight. So the answer is “hop”.

Most clues don’t just have one of these; they include multiple aspects combined! And it never tells you upfront which types it involves, nor does it tell you which part of the clue the straight is. If this brief explanation wasn’t too convoluted and confusing, and you find yourself intrigued by this boggling little puzzles, then I highly recommend trying out some of the New Yorker’s beginner friendly puzzles. Good luck, and happy puzzling!