40 clue examples, good and bad
Forty real clues, sorted by technique and by how many letters are showing, each with a verdict and the reason behind it. Use it to work out why your last clue got broken, or to find a new angle when you're stuck.
How to read the tables
Each example has four parts: the prefix (the letters of the secret word revealed so far), the private word only the clue giver sees, the public clue everyone reads, the Dener included, and a verdict. There are five verdicts:
- Works: a teammate can get it inside the ten-second window, and the Dener has to make a real leap.
- Too obvious: the Dener types the word in their first few guesses and breaks the clue.
- Too vague: several words fit, so contacters may write different ones. One mismatch and the contact fails, and every word written is used up for the round.
- Two words: the clue points cleanly at two different words, which splits a contact just as badly.
- Blocked: the clue text contains the word, so the game won't post it.
A few of the clues that work lean on a group of friends. Swap in your own names and stories. For the thinking behind all this, start with the guide to writing great clues.
Definitions
A definition says what the word is. It's the first thing most new players write, and the first thing the Dener checks.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | BREAD | "You toast it" | Too obvious. Toast leads straight to bread, and the Dener gets there as fast as anyone. |
| C | CHAIR | "Furniture" | Too vague. Chair, couch, cupboard, cabinet and cot all fit. |
| S | SPONGE | "Soaks up spills, lives by the sink" | Works, if the Dener is busy. Two details pin one word, but a Dener with nothing else to watch will try it. |
| M | MOON | "Shines at night, the second half of honeymoon" | Blocked. Honeymoon contains moon, and the check catches words hidden inside longer words. |
Categories
A category clue names a group the word belongs to. The skill is in how much detail you add.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| F | FALCON | "A bird" | Too vague. Finch, flamingo and falcon all start with F. Two contacters, two birds, failed contact. |
| F | FLAMINGO | "The pink bird that stands on one leg" | Too obvious. The detail that fixes the vagueness hands it to the Dener too. |
| F | FISH | "A goldfish is one" | Blocked. Goldfish contains fish. |
| M | MANGO | "The fruit Gran calls the king of them all" | Works. A category plus a saying your family uses. The Dener has to know the phrase and spot it in time. |
Sound and rhyme
Sound clues say what the word rhymes with or sounds like. They're easy to solve, and that cuts both ways.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | CANDLE | "Rhymes with handle" | Too obvious. The Dener can run through rhymes as fast as your teammates can. |
| R | RAIN | "Rhymes with train, comes before a rainbow" | Blocked. Rainbow contains rain, and so does train. The rhyme itself got it rejected. |
| P | PEAR | "Sounds like two of a kind" | Two words. Pair and pear sound the same, both start with P, and both are real words. |
| K | KNIGHT | "Sounds like bedtime" | Works. The sound points at night, which doesn't start with K, so the solver has to hear it and then respell it. Teammates who know you love puns make the hop first. |
Films, stories and food
Shared culture means films, songs, fairy tales and food that most of your table knows. The Dener often knows them too, so the clue has to make them take a step.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| T | TEAPOT | "Short and stout" | Too obvious. Everyone at the table, Dener included, knows the nursery rhyme. |
| L | LION | "The king in the film where a cub sings that he has no worries" | Works. Two steps: name the film, then the animal. |
| C | CHOCOLATE | "What Willy Wonka's factory makes" | Two words. Candy and chocolate both start with C, and both are right. |
| W | WOLF | "The villain in the fairy tale" | Too vague. Which fairy tale? Wolf and witch both fit W. |
| N | NAAN | "What we tear up to scoop the dal" | Works. One concrete action at a meal your group shares points at one bread. |
Opposites
An opposite is a one-step clue, quick for everyone. Alone it rarely survives; it's best as half of a combined clue.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| N | NIGHT | "The opposite of day" | Too obvious. The Dener types it before you've let go of the button. |
| S | SOUR | "Not sweet" | Too vague. Sour, salty and savoury all fit. |
| U | UNHAPPY | "The opposite of happy" | Allowed, but too obvious. The check looks for UNHAPPY in the clue, and "happy" doesn't contain it. The Dener still gets it at once. |
| K | KIND | "The opposite of unkind" | Blocked. Unkind contains kind. |
What it does
Describing what something does, rather than what it is, is often one step less obvious than a definition.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| K | KETTLE | "Whistles when it's ready" | Too obvious. There aren't many K things that whistle. |
| B | BROOM | "It sweeps" | Two words. Broom and brush both start with B. |
| U | UMBRELLA | "Opens when the sky does" | Works. A small twist on the job it does. Teammates smile and contact while the Dener decodes "the sky opens". |
| A | ALARM | "Ruins every Monday morning" | Works. A feeling rather than a function, and only one A word owns it. |
Fill in the blank
A blank inside a saying is precise: only one word fills it. The risk is that the Dener knows the saying too.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | CAKE | "A piece of ___" | Too obvious. Everyone finishes this one without thinking. |
| P | PUDDING | "The proof of the ___ is in the eating" | Works. A real saying, but a rarer one. A Dener scanning P words may not connect it in ten seconds. |
| W | WOODS | "We're not out of the ___ yet" | Works. If a contacter types WOOD it still matches, because singular and plural count as the same word. |
| L | LIGHT | "Turn off the ___ before bed" | Two words. Light and lamp both fit the blank. |
Combining two hints
Two weak hints can make one strong clue when only one word fits both. Each half alone opens many doors, so the Dener can't jump on either.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | STAR | "In the night sky, and on top of the tree in December" | Works. Sky alone could be sun or satellite; the tree settles it. |
| C | CRANE | "A bird, and a machine on a building site" | Works. A double meaning: two vague halves, one exact answer. |
| M | MOUSE | "Squeaks, and clicks" | Works. Short to read, so teammates can contact fast. |
| A | APPLE | "Red, round, keeps the doctor away" | Too obvious. Every extra hint helps the Dener as much as your team. Stop sooner. |
| B | BRACELET | "Shiny, goes round your wrist" | Two words. Bracelet and bangle both fit. Add a detail only one of them has. |
One letter, two letters, three
The same kind of clue gets weaker as letters appear. With one letter there are thousands of words; with three, the Dener can list the likely ones and type them all. Here's one round as the prefix grows from B to BR to BRE.
| Prefix | Word | Clue | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | BALLOON | "What the clown twisted into a dog" | Works. The Dener can't type every B word, so even a one-step clue can survive. |
| B | BLUE | "A colour" | Too vague. Blue, black, brown, beige. |
| BR | BRIDGE | "Crosses a river" | Too obvious. There are far fewer BR words, and bridge is one the Dener tries early. |
| BR | BROCCOLI | "The tiny trees Sam hides under his napkin" | Works. A longer word plus a habit only the group has seen. |
| BRE | BREAD | "Goes in the toaster" | Too obvious. With BRE showing, bread is the first word any Dener types. |
| BRE | BREADCRUMB | "What Hansel dropped to find his way home" | Works. The Dener's list starts with bread, break and breath. Typing BREAD doesn't break BREADCRUMB, because only the exact word, or its plural or singular, matches. |
Example. The prefix is BR. Jo posts "Crosses a river" for BRIDGE, and the Dener breaks it in two seconds, so bridge can't be used again this round. Jo tries "The tiny trees Sam hides under his napkin" for BROCCOLI. The Dener types brick, broom and brush while Sam presses Contact! and types BROCCOLI. The contact holds, and the Dener has to reveal E.
Tip: When the prefix is long, reach for a longer or less likely word. The Dener's quick list is made of short, common words.
What the good ones share
- Too obvious clues are one step from the word. Add a second step: a film, a habit, a double meaning.
- Too vague clues name a group. Add one detail that only your word has.
- Two words come from near-twins: pear and pair, broom and brush, bracelet and bangle. Before posting, ask what else starts with these letters and fits.
- Blocked clues usually hide your word inside a longer one: honeymoon, goldfish, rainbow, unkind.
- Works clues are aimed at specific teammates and cost the Dener a moment of decoding. That moment is often the whole ten seconds.
The best clues lean on what your group shares, but there's a limit: if only one friend could possibly get it, the Dener can flag it. The guide to fair clues and inside references explains where the line is. For when to post and when to contact, read the strategy guide, and for the full rules, see how to play.
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