Anagram · Container indicator
break
“break” is an anagram indicator in cryptic crosswords.
An anagram clue gives you the exact letters of the answer in a jumbled order, plus a word that signals the mix-up — words suggesting disorder, change, or breakage.
Depending on the clue, “break” can also act as a container indicator.
- Clue types
- Anagram, Container
- Forms
- break, breaks, broken, breaking, breaking into
- Subtlety
- moderate
- Part of speech
- verb, participle, phrase, adjective
- Themes
- destruction, containment
“Reef breaking loose (4)”
Answer: FREE
Anagram. Definition is "loose" (= free, as in set loose/set free). The wordplay is an anagram of "reef" (FREE), with "breaking" as the anagram indicator. The surface reads as a coherent image — something breaking loose at a reef — with "breaking loose" doubling as a natural idiom to bury the device. Every word is accounted for: reef (fodder), breaking (indicator), loose (definition).
Related indicators
- abnormal
- about
- absorb
- abstract
- accommodate
- acquire
- adapt
- adjust
- admit
- adopt
- afflict
- after a fashion
- agitate
- ailing
- all over the place
- alter
Explore indicator types
Today’s clue is waiting.
Your first solve is free, no account needed. Sign in to save your streak.
Play today’s free clueNo credit card · A new clue every day · Free to play