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A comment on I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them. Parent comment

Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them by zem on Monday May 03, 2021 @07:25AM (#27023717)
to expand on other answers, a themed NYT crossword often has four or so entries that involve some sort of punnery or wordplay, and are not actual words or phrases but can be deduced from a combination of a real word/phrase and the theme. so in this case there might have been other entries like

Pasta dish served at a burger joint: BIG MACARONI

Lose your temper at some pasta: BLOW A FUSILLI

etc.

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Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them by GrumpyNl on Monday May 03, 2021 @07:41AM (#27023834)
We call them anagram puzzles, crosswords puzzles are for us other words with the same meaning.
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Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them by alisonkisk on Monday May 03, 2021 @08:23AM (#27024146)
It's not an anagram, it was portmanteau (in this case, but other wordplay is seen too).

Also, folks in the thread are ignoring Henry Hook, a famous UK constructor who used plenty of "non-standard" wordplay.

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Re:I was terrible at crosswords so I built an AI to do them by zem on Monday May 03, 2021 @02:52PM (#27029156)
henry hook was american (and wrote american style cryptics, which are very similar to uk cryptics but have a few stylistic differences)

also i'd say portmanteau clues (and rebuses) are standard wordplay for an nyt crossword, they just unfamiliar to people who don't do that kind.

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