Anagram indicator
crack
“crack” 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.
- Clue types
- Anagram
- Forms
- crack, cracks, cracked, cracking
- Subtlety
- subtle, moderate
- Part of speech
- verb, adjective, participle
- Themes
- destruction
“House cracked? Oh, me! (4)”
Answer: HOME
Definition: "House" = HOME, at the start. Wordplay: anagram ("cracked") of the fodder OH ME → HOME. The indicator "cracked" reads in the surface as describing a cracked house, burying the anagram device, while the surface scene — a homeowner exclaiming dismay at a cracked house ("Oh, me!") — misdirects away from the answer. Enumeration (4) matches HOME.
Related indicators
- abnormal
- abstract
- adapt
- adjust
- afflict
- after a fashion
- agitate
- ailing
- all over the place
- alter
- alternative
- amiss
- anagram
- another
- arrange
- askew
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