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        riddles >> easy >> The world's hardest crossword clue
        
(Message started by: WombatDeath on Apr 2nd, 2004, 2:10pm)
Title: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by WombatDeath on Apr 2nd, 2004, 2:10pm
I recently read a novel which contained this crossword clue:

E(13)

Yes, that's the entire clue. I know that this sort of thing doesn't appeal to everyone but I thought it might be interesting to see what logical solutions people can come up with. Be warned: the "correct" answer makes sense, but it's monstrously unreasonable to expect anyone to actually guess it. No spoilers from people who've read the book, please!

Any ideas?
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Sameer on Apr 2nd, 2004, 3:34pm
what is it for.. across down... how many letters?? any other letters that you know in that because of other hints??/
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by WombatDeath on Apr 2nd, 2004, 3:49pm
Assume that the direction doesn't matter and that you don't know any other letters. The clue follows the usual crossword clue conventions, which should answer your question about the number of letters.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by kellys on Apr 2nd, 2004, 3:52pm
That's easy.  EEEEEEEEEEEEE, as in, EEEEEEEEEEEEE there's a mouse in this room.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Sir Col on Apr 2nd, 2004, 4:46pm
(i) hallucination?
E (the street name for Ecstasy), is a synthetic psychoactive entactogen. Although not true in low does, it is chemically similar to mescaline, so in sufficiently high doses it can cause hallucinogenic effects.

(ii) enlightenment?
The "result" of working it out.

(iii) young's modulus?
The symbol used to represent the value.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by WombatDeath on Apr 2nd, 2004, 5:07pm
Very good, Sir! I'd possibly go so far as to say that your second guess is a nicer answer than the 'official' version, and they share the same basic theme.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by SWF on Apr 2nd, 2004, 5:20pm
emmseesquared   (mc2)  I know the spelling is bad.  Maybe "m times c square"
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Cathos on Apr 2nd, 2004, 9:13pm
Perhaps "Eureka! I've got it!"

That's similar to abrupt enlightenment.

Wait, it has to be 13 letters?
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Noke Lieu on Apr 5th, 2004, 12:36am
reminds me of one I came across the other day...

____ (7)

there were two correct answers.
Not as hard as this one though, but  [hide] ENTERTAINMENT [/hide]  enough. [hide] I know they don't have to start with e, but here's some others [/hide]  :-/

This clue... an American book? Then it make have been editorialised, but I reckon most would disagree educationally on its eligibilities. You can't deny the effectiveness of the simplicity of the clue, if this is true. Nor the elaborateness of this answer.
But the true answer should be envied for its elusiveness.

I can definately say the answers not "embellishment".

What about E(10)?
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Nigel_Parsons on Apr 8th, 2004, 3:20am
I know crossword clues should show number of letters in each word, rather than in the whole answer, but...

E(13) "Eleven Plus Two",  or even  "Eight Plus Five"

Nigel
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by evergreena3 on Apr 8th, 2004, 10:41am
I'd say ENTERTAINMENT.

After all, Isn't the E channel on TV the Entertainment Channel?

Seems to fit.


EverGreenA3
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Nigel_Parsons on Apr 8th, 2004, 1:16pm
OK this has been bugging me.

The answer is clearly to be infered from the observed values and tendencies already known.
I.e. we need an E(13)...

[hide]Extrapolation[/hide]


Nigel
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Icarus on Apr 8th, 2004, 3:27pm
Nigel - to hide text, use the [hide][/hide] tags!

I've fixed your post above.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Fountainhead on Apr 14th, 2004, 11:51pm
hey what is the answer???
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Nigel_Parsons on Apr 15th, 2004, 12:56am
Fountainhead:
I think my response (2 above yours) gives the answer (hidden), but am awaiting confirmation from Wombat of Death who posted the puzzle
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by WombatDeath on Apr 15th, 2004, 2:38am
Nobody's yet posted the answer given in the book, though to be honest I think that many of your responses are actually better.

It doesn't really matter but, for the benefit of the curious, the book's answer is [hide]senselessness[/hide].
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Nigel_Parsons on Apr 15th, 2004, 2:46am
As a crossword clue that would not be acceptable in most quality papers
::[HIDE]Sense less(-) ness = e.  Most crosswords would expect 'ness' to appear within 'sense' in its correct order before it could be subtracted.
But at least we now have the 'official' answer[/HIDE]::
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by grimbal on May 19th, 2004, 6:56am

on 04/05/04 at 00:36:53, Noke Lieu wrote:
What about E(10)?


Einsteinium.  Its symbol initally was E, but has now been changed to Es.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by evergreena3 on May 20th, 2004, 1:26pm
Nope, Grimbal.

Answer is 2 above this one.
[hide]senselessness[/hide]
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Three Hands on May 20th, 2004, 1:55pm
Well, if people can come up with good alternative answers, then why not?!

I think a better complaint to make against Grimbal is that his answer is 11 letters, not 10, so fails in that respect...
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by grimbal on May 22nd, 2004, 5:16pm
:-[

Grimbalium has 10, but is not Einsteinium.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Three Hands on May 23rd, 2004, 3:41am
And would be stretching general symbol allocations with the periodic table to have the symbol E...
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Ac on May 26th, 2004, 12:59am
FifthAlphabet
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Raapi Vijayaraghavan on Sep 16th, 2004, 1:17pm
answer is senselessness
sense without ness gives "e"

-Raapi
p.s:(Hope this is not too late)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Raapi Vijayaraghavan on Sep 16th, 2004, 1:20pm
how abt this?
gsge for breakfast ? (9,4)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Cathos on Sep 16th, 2004, 8:48pm
I prefer mine over-hard
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Sep 17th, 2004, 3:51am

on 09/16/04 at 20:48:43, Cathos wrote:
I prefer mine over-hard

Now that is a toughie! How many letters?   ::)

('Senselessness' feels right to me.)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by grandpa on Sep 19th, 2004, 5:54pm
'SENSELESSNESS'  as a cryptic clue leading to the answer 'E' is acceptable if a single letter word is ever clued in Crosswords, but not as an answer to 'E (13)'.

So 'E (13)' has to be ::[hide]EXPONENTIALLY[/hide]:: or any of the other ::[hide]EXTRAORDINARY[/hide]:: alternatives suggested earlier.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Cathos on Sep 20th, 2004, 7:39pm
I was refering to the gsge one, not all this other senselessness.  Or am I the one that's not getting it...
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by rmsgrey on Sep 22nd, 2004, 7:27am
The gsge also came up in the course of the Interesting Puzzle Challenge Site (or whatever it was called), and was mentioned on that thread too...

[e]getting this thread's version rather than the other site's GEGS[/e]
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Sep 22nd, 2004, 9:53am

on 09/20/04 at 19:39:53, Cathos wrote:
I was refering to the gsge one, not all this other senselessness.  Or am I the one that's not getting it...

My mistake. (I get it now.)   ::)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Nigel_Parsons on Sep 25th, 2004, 12:51pm
"HIJKLMNO" (5)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Grimbal on Sep 25th, 2004, 1:36pm
It is all the letter from H to O... H2O .... Vapor?
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by rmsgrey on Sep 26th, 2004, 10:59am
steam?
cloud?
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Cathos on Sep 26th, 2004, 8:52pm
Well, now you're just toying with us, I refuse to believe that you would make the leap from H2O to vapor without the obvious correct answer, which is of course [hide]scrambled eggs[/hide]
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by John_Gaughan on Sep 27th, 2004, 6:03am
Obvious? Maybe to you. This is, after all, the world's hardest crossword clue ;)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by Grimbal on Sep 27th, 2004, 6:43am
Frost?  Drops?  Flood?  Evian?

Beats me....

PS:  ;)
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by espiritn on Sep 27th, 2004, 5:05pm
An answer for E(13) that might be seen in a regular newspaper crossword (which often has thematic clues with multiple words) could be "LETTER BEFORE F".
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Sep 27th, 2004, 8:45pm

on 09/27/04 at 17:05:19, espiritn wrote:
An answer for E(13) that might be seen in a regular newspaper crossword (which often has thematic clues with multiple words) could be "LETTER BEFORE F".

But the clue would then read 'E (6,6,1)'.
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by rmsgrey on Sep 28th, 2004, 5:57am
Regrettably, not all crosswords give word-lengths. Some don't bother with any numbers at all (presumably on the grounds that you should be able to deduce the length from the grid) and others just give you the total length
Title: Re: The world's hardest crossword clue
Post by asterix on Sep 28th, 2004, 8:56am
If not "letter before f", how about effrontery? I know, too short. Then maybe coming from the other direction,  determination?


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