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Cryptic clues are a straight definition plus wordplay. These notes walk the common devices with original examples. Open the working when you are ready, or send a clue straight into the solver.

• The toolkitFodder and abbreviationsDefinition, indicator, fodder, and the letter tips setters hide in plain English.
• The friendliest deviceHidden wordsThe answer sits in plain sight inside the clue, often straddling two words. A hiding indicator tells you to look inside the fodder.
• Letters on the moveAnagramsAn anagrind (mixed, broken, wild, novel…) sits beside letters you must rearrange. The definition is elsewhere in the clue.
• Read it backwardsReversalsA reversal indicator (back, returned, sent back, going west) tells you to reverse a stretch of fodder to reach the definition.
• Lose a letterDeletionsTake a word (or a synonym), then knock off its head, tail, or heart. Indicators such as headless, endless, and heartless do the cutting.
• One word inside anotherContainersAn outer word swallows an inner bit (letter, abbreviation, or short word). Indicators include about, around, holding, clutching, and outside.
• Build it in orderCharadesCharades string shorter meanings one after another. Read the clue as a sum of parts that keeps the same order as the answer.
• Two meanings, one wordDouble definitionsNo fancy wordplay, just two definitions side by side for the same answer. The art is spotting that both halves stand alone.
• Sounds likeHomophonesA homophone indicator (say, reportedly, heard, on the radio) means the answer sounds like another word suggested beside it.
• Take the leadersInitial lettersAcrostic clues ask for the first letters of successive words. Indicators include primarily, initially, leaders, and heads.
• Every other letterAlternate lettersTake odd or even letters from a word or short phrase. Indicators include oddly, evenly, regularly, and every other.
• All in one&lit cluesIn an &lit (and literally so), the whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay. Nothing is leftover padding.