Hidden word cryptic crossword clues - Solution for 14 March cryptic clue

Living in a town in Darfur, Bangladesh (5)
Solution – urban

Pretty straightforward today.  The solution is “in” the words “Darfur, Bangladesh” and means “living in a town”.  As always they put in punctuation to try to divert attention – around the comma you find your answer “urban”.


This is an example of a hidden word clue.

With hidden words clues you will find the solution or answer embedded directly into the clue.  It will either be inside a word of the clue or may be spread over more than one word of the clue – including quite often across some punctuation marks.

As with anagrams, these clues have 3 parts – the definition ie a meaning for the solution, the hidden word indicator and the word or words which contain the solution.

Examples of common hidden word indicators include –

Appears in	Camouflages	Concealed	Contained	Content
Displaying	Dwells in	Encloses	Exhibiting	Featuring
From	Gives	Has	Held by	Hidden
Holds	In	Inside	Intrinsic	Letters from
Part	Partly	Providing	Showing	Some
Stores	Within	Coming from

Hidden word clues seem easy in one sense – ie the solution is right there to be seen in the clue itself – but those crossword setters are tricky little blighters.  So you often find the definition refers to something quite exotic or arcane – something that needs some specialized knowledge.  But if it looks like a hidden word clue then look for various collections of the right number of letters.  You can always then look them up in the dictionary (online or hard copy) and see whether any of them are words that match the definition.  I find this quite a fun way to learn new things.