Double or multiple definitions These clues give you two or more alternative definitions for the same word. Usually, all of them are definitions or synonyms that you can confirm using a dictionary or thesaurus, but sometimes some or all of them are cryptic definitions. Anagrams Possibly the best-known cryptic clue type. As the Greek origin of the word indicates, taking the letters of a word or phrase and rearranging them to produce another word or phrase is a very old game. Cryptic clues using anagrams normally include some indication of rearrangement - a word like 'sort', 'arrange', or 'twisted', often called the anagram indicator .
Cryptic definitions are definitions written in some deceitful way.
Many are effectively riddles, others use unexpected word meanings. I don't know who thought of it first. The trick is in using 'wicked' to mean 'furnished with a wick', in the same way as 'tented' in the phrase 'tented village'. Setters often like to use some mild double entendre to make you think of the wrong kind of answer. The name comes from the parlour game where you try to convey a phrase like the name of a film, by giving clues to each word or syllable.