Lesson 6 of 8
Reversals
Read it backwards.
A reversal clue gives you a word, tells you to turn it around, and defines the result. The indicator is any word about going backwards: back, returning, sent back, reversed, in retreat, in retrospect. In a down clue it can also be up, rising or climbing.
As with homophones, the word you reverse is usually clued rather than written. “Beer poured back is royal” never shows you LAGER; you find it from “beer”, then pour it back to get REGAL.
Reversals love short words, because far more of them read as something else backwards: pots and stop, lager and regal, live and evil, loot and tool. When a clue feels like it has only two parts and one of them means backwards, you are probably looking at one.
Words that give it away
- back
- returning
- sent back
- reversed
- over
- up
- in retreat
- in retrospect
- poured back
Worked examples
Forty winks after pan is sent back (3)
- 01“Sent back” is the indicator, so the word before it gets reversed.
- 02Here the word is given outright: PAN backwards is NAP.
- 03“Forty winks” is a NAP, so the definition sits at the start.
NAP
Beer poured back is royal (5)
- 01“Poured back” fits the beer in the surface and signals the reversal at the same time.
- 02“Beer” is LAGER, and LAGER reversed is REGAL.
- 03“Royal” defines REGAL, and “is” is just a link.
REGAL
Try one Bunny slope
Halt! Pots are sent back (4)