PlusWord No. 1,603
October 11, 2026PlusWord is The Telegraph's daily mini crossword: five across, five down, and a hidden five-letter word. Each row you fill in is scored like a Wordle guess, and the yellow squares tell you which letters belong in the PlusWord. Play it on the Telegraph.
Hint 1: vowels and repeats
- The PlusWord has 2 vowels and no repeated letters.
Hint 2: its letters, in no order
- A, E, L, N, V
Hint 3: the first letter
- It starts with V.
Today's clues and answers
Tap an answer to see it, so you can take one clue and leave the rest.
Across
- 1 Across Slovenly people SLOBS
- 6 Across Chaos HAVOC
- 7 Across Indigenous American group; as ego (anag.) OSAGE
- 8 Across Show again, e.g. on TV RERUN
- 9 Across Romantic rendezvous TRYST
Down
- 1 Down Of small stature SHORT
- 2 Down Earls (anag.) LASER
- 3 Down Reproductive organ in animals and plants OVARY
- 4 Down Fraudulent BOGUS
- 5 Down Fragrance SCENT
Today's PlusWord answer, No. 1,603
What VENAL means: open to bribery, willing to do wrong for money.
How to find the PlusWord
Fill the grid first. Every row is scored against the hidden word the way Wordle scores a guess: a yellow square is a letter in the PlusWord but somewhere else, a green one is in the right place, and a plain square is not in it at all. Collect the yellow letters, then use each square's column to rule out where each one can go. On most days the yellow letters are the whole word.
PlusWord hides a word. This one hides a headline.
One real news sentence a day, twenty to thirty words, something that actually happened. Keep the five words a headline would keep and let the rest go. Here is yesterday's, solved.
At Camden Lock, a 71-year-old woman, Beatrice Millar, took off her shoes, jumped in after a drowning man and saved him by holding his head above water.
Five tries. blue is the right word in the right place, orange is one of the five sitting somewhere else, grey is not one of them. The result beats the process, a name or a job beats a place, and the little words never count.
How you finish decides which sticker you keep.
