Anagram indicator
loose
“loose” 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
- loose, loosely
- Subtlety
- subtle
- Part of speech
- adjective, adverb
“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
- abstract
- adapt
- adjust
- afflict
- after a fashion
- agitate
- ailing
- all over the place
- alter
- alternative
- amiss
- anagram
- another
- arrange
- askew
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