Anagram indicator
crude
“crude” 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
- crude, crudely
- Subtlety
- subtle
- Part of speech
- adjective, adverb
- Themes
- destruction
“Word crudely sewn (4)”
Answer: NEWS
Anagram clue. Definition "Word" = NEWS (as in "any word from home?" meaning any news). Wordplay: the fodder SEWN, with the anagram indicator "crudely" (connoting rough, disordered making) placed before it, rearranges to NEWS. The surface reads as a single natural image — a word crudely sewn (roughly embroidered onto cloth) — which buries the indicator and misdirects toward needlework rather than journalism.
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- all over the place
- alter
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- arrange
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