Anagram indicator
stew
“stew” 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
- stew, stews, stewed, stewing
- Subtlety
- moderate
- Part of speech
- verb, adjective, participle
- Themes
- cooking
“Ministers in a stew, I can bet (7)”
Answer: CABINET
Definition: "Ministers" = CABINET (the body of senior government ministers). Wordplay: anagram ("in a stew" = agitated/mixed up) of the fodder "I CAN BET" (I,C,A,N,B,E,T), which rearranges exactly to CABINET (C,A,B,I,N,E,T). All seven fodder letters appear literally in the surface. The surface reads as a natural wry remark — "I bet the ministers are panicking" — burying the anagram indicator and misdirecting toward political turmoil rather than a letter-rearrangement. Enumeration (7) matches the answer length.
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- all over the place
- alter
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