Word deletion
A word or phrase is deleted from a longer one, leaving a third. Examples: TOTAL = performance, ONE = man, TWO = perforce (shown as “perfor(man)ce”); subt(rah)end. Only the length of the longest word or phrase is given.
If the cuewords are ONE and TWO, the inside word is ONE and the outside word is TWO. The same is true for other cueword pairs that have a natural order: FIRST goes inside SECOND. Avoid using a pair of cuewords (like HERE and THERE) that doesn’t imply an order. Other common cuewords for word deletions are IN and OUT, INNER and OUTER, and WITHIN and WITHOUT. Cuewords like these are especially kind to the solver, since they clearly show which is the inside word.
In the two-word deletion, two consecutive words or phrases are deleted from a third to leave a fourth. Example: WHOLE = organ-grinder, ONE = gang, TWO = rin (a Japanese coin), THREE = order (shown as “or(gan-g)(rin)der”).
Three-word deletions and more are possible.
In the progressive word deletion, three or more words are nested to form a longer one. ONE is always innermost. Example: WHOLE = consecratory, ONE = Ra, TWO = sector, THREE = cony. The progressive word deletion was invented by Tut and introduced in January 1973.