Daily Cryptic Crossword — 5 Daily Clues
Five handcrafted cryptic clues every morning. Use 4 tiers of progressive hints or solve cleanly with 0 hints to earn flawless stars and keep your daily streak alive!
Listen carefully to produce quiet(6)
Setter: Acrostic Ace
Today's 5 Daily Clues
Five varied wordplay techniques selected for today. Click any card to jump directly to it:
Listen carefully to produce quiet (6)
European country without adult needing food (6)
Secret agent concealed in modern spycraft (3)
Reportedly permitted spoken message (5)
Returned reward for drinking vessel (3)
More Daily Word Challenges
Cryptic Mini #2: The Gaze
Interlocking 5x5 grid with full rotational symmetry. 10 bite-sized clues designed to solve in under 4 minutes.
Track 1: Letterplay
New to cryptic crosswords? Learn how to spot anagrams, reversals, and hidden words using letters already visible in the clue.
Indicator Dictionary
Search over 200+ trigger words for anagrams, deletions, containers, homophones, plus cryptic abbreviations and chemical symbols.
Recent Daily Clues
How to Deconstruct Any Cryptic Clue in 4 Steps
Expert solvers don't guess—they follow a systematic grammatical breakdown. Here is the exact mental algorithm:
Locate the Definition
Ignore the middle of the clue. The straight definition is almost always the very first word(s) or the very last word(s). Check both ends first!
Spot the Indicator
Scan for trigger words that order an action: words like "wild", "badly", "broken" (anagram), "inside" (container), or "beheaded" (deletion).
Identify the Fodder
Find the letters or words the indicator acts upon. Count letters precisely: the fodder must yield the exact number in the enumeration bracket.
Verify Both Routes
Confirm your candidate solution satisfies both sides: does it equal the wordplay formula AND fit the straight dictionary synonym? If both match, it's 100% correct!
How Cryptic Crosswords Actually Work
Unlike ordinary definition crosswords, every cryptic clue is a miniature word puzzle with strict rules.
1The Golden Tripartite Rule
Every fair cryptic clue contains three parts: a Straight Definition, a recipe of Wordplay, and an Enumeration (the letter count in brackets). The definition is NEVER in the middle of the clue—it is always anchored at the very beginning or the very end!
2Fair Surfaces and Honest Deception
A good cryptic clue reads like a natural, coherent English sentence (the "surface reading"). While the sentence makes you picture a politician, a meal, or an animal, the cryptic mechanics secretly instruct you to subtract letters, reverse a sound, or unscramble an anagram.
3Progressive Hints for Stress-Free Learning
Never get stuck again. On CrypticPuzzle.com, you can reveal hints incrementally: first the wordplay category, then the definition underline, then the mathematical wordplay equation, and finally letter reveals. Build your solving instincts at your own pace!
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about solving cryptic crosswords and playing on CrypticPuzzle.com.
Q1.How do the 5 daily cryptic crossword clues work?▼
Every single morning at local midnight, we publish 5 brand-new, handcrafted cryptic clues across diverse wordplay categories (Anagrams, Containers, Deletions, Hidden Words, Homophones, Reversals, Charades, and Double Definitions). You can solve all 5 to advance your daily consecutive streak and earn up to 5 flawless gold stars!
Q2.How does a cryptic crossword clue work?▼
Unlike ordinary definition crosswords, every cryptic clue contains two routes to the exact same answer: a straight definition (always at the very start or end under the Extreme Placement Rule) and a wordplay puzzle (anagrams, hidden words, charades, reversals, or deletions). The letter count in brackets tells you the exact answer length.
Q3.What makes CrypticPuzzle.com different from traditional newspaper crosswords?▼
We provide an interactive, progressive learning experience. If you get stuck, you do not have to give up or spoil the answer. Our 4-tier progressive hint system lets you reveal the wordplay mechanism, highlight the definition, view the wordplay equation, or check individual letters at your own pace.
Q4.What is a 5x5 Mini Cryptic Crossword?▼
Our daily 5x5 Mini Arena is a bite-sized, fully intersecting word square puzzle with 10 clues (5 Across and 5 Down). Every single letter is checked by both an Across and a Down clue, allowing you to use solved letters to rapidly crack difficult intersecting wordplay in under 3 to 4 minutes.
Q5.What time do the 5 daily clues and mini crossword refresh?▼
A brand-new set of 5 daily clues and the 5x5 mini crossword unlock every day at local midnight according to your timezone. You can also explore hundreds of past puzzles anytime in our complete archive.
Q6.Are all cryptic clues on this platform Ximenean and fair?▼
Yes! Every clue strictly adheres to classic Ximenean principles: the definition is never placed in the middle of a clue, anagram indicators are explicit, abbreviations are standard, and surface readings make coherent grammatical sense without unfair leaps.