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8:43am on Sunday, 24th August, 2025:
Anecdote
I tried out ChatGPT on three cryptic crossword clues that I'd had trouble with myself.
Here's the first:
Me: Here is a cryptic crossword clue for a 7-letter word beginning and ending with G, going across: "Get along and chime with hack who's had snip". Can you solve it?
ChatGPT:
GELDING
Wordplay: "Get along" = GEL (as in "we gel"), and "chime" = DING. Put together: GEL + DING.
Definition: "hack who's had snip" = a GELDING (a castrated horse).
Fits pattern: 7 letters, starts and ends with G.
OK, well that's good. It did it very quickly — in four or five seconds. I'd been thinking of "hack" as being a journalist, so this one had taken me ages.
Here's the second:
Me: Here is a cryptic crossword clue for a 7-letter word beginning with S, going down: "Is at home climbing above swamp to find more solidity". Can you solve it?
ChatGPT:
Thought for 58s
STIFFEN
Definition: "to find more solidity."
Wordplay: S ("is") + T ("to") + IN ("at home") climbing (reversed in a down clue → I) placed above FEN ("swamp") → S + T + I + FEN, with the F from "find" (initial letter) giving STIFFEN.
It got the right answer, but didn't notice that STIF is FITS (that is, "Is at home") when read backwards (because it's "climbing"). It concocted a weird set of justifications for it instead. To be fair, it was the "fits" part that took me awhile to work out, too.
Here's the third:
Me: Here is a cryptic crossword clue for an 8-letter word beginning with M, going down: "King mostly captivated by young French female novelist". Can you solve it?
ChatGPT:
Thought for 1m 22s
MELVILLE
"King mostly" = ELVI (Elvis, "the King," mostly = drop the final s).
"young French female" = MLLE (abbr. for mademoiselle).
"captivated by" indicates insertion: M(ELVI)LLE → MELVILLE.
Definition: "novelist."
That's exactly right. I'd been thinking "Michelle" as being the name of a novellist, but couldn't get beyond the "elle" at the end until I investigated "King" meaning "Elvis" (which I'd thought the moment I read the clue, but had dismissed).
However, when I asked ChatGPT to solve this clue yesterday, it reasoned completely differently and got it wrong:
ChatGPT:
Thought for 1m 18s
MORRISON
Definition: female novelist → (Toni) Morrison.
Wordplay: M + (ROI) (French for "king") inside SON ("young" male) → M + S(ROI)ON → MORRISON.
In conclusion, then, if you're stuck on a cryptic crossword clue then ChatGPT is surprisingly good at them, but (as always with ChatGPT) you need to check what it produces because it's not always right.
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