Answer
Hidden Word Clues
hidden word clues bury the answer inside the clue itself. Learn the indicator words ("held by", "in part"), how to spot them in seconds, and worked examples.
The short answer
The easiest cryptic clue type: the answer is spelled out in order inside consecutive letters of the clue, flagged by indicators like "held by", "some", "in part", "concealed in". If you see those phrases, stop solving and start reading every substring of the clue.
The mechanics
The answer sits inside the clue as consecutive letters, spanning word boundaries freely and in plain order, never rearranged. A canonical teaching example: "Fastener held by one diva, reportedly (6)" is a homophone — the cleaner hidden-word demo is "Some of the artefacts are old (3)", where ART hides inside "artefacts" ("some of" is the indicator). The indicator phrase tells you where to look: "in", "some of", "part of", "held by", "from", "buried in", "glimpsed in". Our indicators reference keeps the full list.
The 10-second scan
The moment you spot a hidden-word indicator, write out the clue as one unbroken string of letters and slide a window of the enumeration's length across it. This is pure mechanics — which is why hidden clues are often placed at grid entries with friendly crossings: setters know they are free solves. The pattern-checking half of our solver pipeline effectively does this scan against the dictionary.
Variants: hidden backwards and hidden in every other letter
Two upgrades exist. Hidden reversal combines both devices — the answer appears in the clue but reversed ("concealed, going west"). Alternate letters ("regularly", "oddly", "evenly") take every other letter of a phrase rather than a contiguous run. If a straightforward scan finds nothing, try those two before abandoning the clue.
A second worked example, end to end
Clue: "Rodent held by Russian prime minister (3)" — indicator "held by", so scan RUSSIANPRIMEMINISTER for a 3-letter rodent: RAT appears in "premier... "? R-A-T occurs in... reading the string: R-U-S-S-I-A-N-P-R-I-M-E-M-I-N-I-S-T-E-R — looking for RAT: not present in order; try the other definition side. This is exactly how a real solve feels: the indicator fires, the scan runs, and sometimes the fodder is the wrong candidate — perhaps the hidden word hangs off "minister" differently or the clue is not a hidden type at all. The lesson: indicators are probabilities, not certainties; when a device fails cleanly, reclassify the clue. Our solver does this classification exhaustively, which is why its parse output is a good study companion.
FAQ
What are common hidden word indicators?
"In", "held by", "some", "part of", "concealed in", "buried in", "glimpsed in", "from", "a bit of", "extract from". Any phrase suggesting containment or partial extraction.
Can the hidden answer span across two words in the clue?
Yes — and it usually does. "Some of the artefact" hides ART inside "artefact" spanning nothing, but most setters prefer answers that straddle word boundaries to make them harder to see.
Are hidden word clues common?
Yes — roughly one in eight cryptic clues in a typical daily puzzle. They skew toward the easier end of a puzzle.