PlusWord No. 1,608
October 16, 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
- C, N, O, T, U
Hint 3: the first letter
- It starts with C.
Today's clues and answers
Tap an answer to see it, so you can take one clue and leave the rest.
Across
- 1 Across Put off DETER
- 6 Across Distinctive fragrance AROMA
- 7 Across Cunning female? VIXEN
- 8 Across Cake decoration ICING
- 9 Across Foppish fellow DANDY
Down
- 1 Down Slayer of Goliath DAVID
- 2 Down I care (anag.) ERICA
- 3 Down Poisonous substance TOXIN
- 4 Down Correct, edit EMEND
- 5 Down Slender and long-limbed RANGY
Today's PlusWord answer, No. 1,608
What COUNT means: To say numbers in order, or to work out how many; also a European nobleman, the equal of an English earl.
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.
