Finer Point #3

Your anagram indicator must actually indicate anagramming.

It used to be that an anagram indicator had to actually indicate some kind of confusion, or motion, or alteration: scrambling (fodder) gives you (solution).

As the years went on, however, the circle of acceptable anagram indicators has gotten broader and broader, until nowadays constructors use just about any word they like to indicate an anagram clue.

To illustrate, here are some real-world examples of words that have been used, inexplicably, as anagram indicators:

Some experienced cryptic crossword constructors and solvers would say I’m being too strict here.  They’ll object when I assign some of their favorite anagram indicators to my “not an indicator” list.

But at one time or another even the most liberal of cryptic crossword puzzle solvers has run up against a clue that stumped them because the so-called “anagram indicator” indicated no such thing.

There’s got to be a line.  It’s just a question of where to draw it.  So let’s take a look:

MEANING: “to perpetrate violence on”

• beat (verb) “to thrash at vigorously”– This works as an anagram indicator
• hit (verb)  “to come in quick forceful contact with” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “to destroy”

• shatter (verb)  “to break into pieces” – This works as an anagram indicator
• obliterate (verb)  “to remove from existence, destroy utterly” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “to displease someone”

• upset (verb)  “to throw into disorder” – This works as an anagram indicator
• anger (verb)  “to make someone feel a strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “to stymie”

• confound (verb)  “to throw into confusion” – This works as an anagram indicator
• frustrate (verb)  “to make ineffectual; bring to nothing” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “to bother”

• trouble (verb)  “to agitate mentally or spiritually” and “to put into confused motion” – This works as an anagram indicator
• harass (verb)  “to annoy persistently” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “nervous”

• disturbed (adjective)  “experiencing or exhibiting emotional disturbance or agitation” – This works as an anagram indicator
• frightened (adjective)  “feeling fear: made to feel afraid” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “in some way”

• anyhow (adverb)  “in a haphazard manner” – This works as an anagram indicator
• perhaps (adverb)  “possibly but not certainly” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

MEANING: “uncertain”

• indeterminate (adjective)  “not definitely or precisely determined or fixed” – This works as an anagram indicator
• untrustworthy (adjective)  “not dependable or worthy of confidence” – This does NOT work as an anagram indicator

In the end, every cryptic crossword constructor gets to decide whether a word is a fair anagram indicator or not.  (So long as not too many of your solvers end up disagreeing with you.)

For my part, and for the sake of this web site, I’m going to keep a somewhat tight rein on which words I list as suitable anagram indicators.  If you have a list of indicators that I should add to my lists, by all means send them to me.

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NOTE: Although anagram indicators are by far the most common example of this sort of overreach, this rule holds true for other indicators as well. Consider these (attempts at) reversal indicators:

MEANING: “to turn away”

• rebut (verb) “to drive or beat back, to repel” – This works as a reversal indicator
• reject (verb) “to throw or cast back, repulse” — This works as a reversal indicator
• rebuff (verb) “to reject or criticize sharply” – This does NOT work as a reversal indicator
• retaliate (verb) “to return like for like” – This is describing a trade, not a backwards motion, and therefore does NOT work as a reversal indicator

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