Skip to the page

Science No. 1 — cryptic crossword

A themed (Science) toughie puzzle: 42 clues on a 15×15 grid. Solve it online — check your answers as you go, ask for a hint, and read how each clue works once it is solved.

Across

  1. Praise sung at lengthy Mass, primarily (5)
  2. Crushed pansy with a twitch, to do with nerve junctions (8)
  3. Round house that would suffer from central heating (5)
  4. Donated fifty for the auctioneer's hammer (5)
  5. Light metal? Graduates admitting one, um... (9)
  6. A beam, shattered, holding nothing: a one-celled creature (6)
  7. Money in Baghdad going down the drain (5)
  8. Instrument for the girl in Paris, a structure inside the cell (9)
  9. Cried out for a drink from the orchard (5)
  10. Spring turning back in folio cover (4)
  11. Evasion in a novice ad, reworked (9)
  12. Knight abandoning king for a robe — bedtime wear (9)
  13. Jazz vocals? Get lost! (4)
  14. Doctor, copy that, and hang loosely (5)
  15. Light let into the doorway makes a representation (9)
  16. Distress, mostly, from a hoarder of cash (5)
  17. Remains: every lost item carefully stored, initially (6)
  18. On the subject of bodyguards, notes to jog the memory (9)
  19. Ready, dressed up, love? (5)
  20. Jobs held back in desks at the office (5)
  21. Day's doom, terribly! (8)
  22. Herb has a moment, reportedly (5)

Down

  1. Quiet, yellowed and leafed through (5)
  2. Caving and crumbling? Not so — gaining ground (9)
  3. Gentle about gold, my lord! (6)
  4. Learner in a climb, powered by the sun (5)
  5. By the sound of it, a sheep is the one addressed (3)
  6. Dealing badly, yet in agreement (7)
  7. Hearing a difficult experience (5)
  8. Contend with books to be up to the job (9)
  9. Retriever before chapel: a place for experiments (10)
  10. Running a mile for the message (5)
  11. Earth diminished, having no foundation (10)
  12. Convict, at the steeple with daughter, plotted (9)
  13. Disguised as scenery, but essential (9)
  14. Despots? Try ants, differently organised (7)
  15. Join, dropping a pound, for seasoning (5)
  16. In the thick of it, admits confusion (6)
  17. Moore, playing the great lover (5)
  18. Muster a fine show (5)
  19. Frost, we hear, in verse (5)
  20. Greek letter swallowed on the way up (3)

More: Science cryptic crosswords.

Front page · Onesies · Gentle · Standard · Cryptic · Toughie · Themed · How to solve