Okay, so I was working on a crossword puzzle earlier today, just something to keep the mind sharp, you know? Most of it was going smoothly, but then I hit this one clue that just made me pause.
Tackling the Clue
The clue was simply: “taunting laugh”. Seemed straightforward enough at first glance. But when I actually started thinking about it, a few options popped into my head.
My initial reaction was, what kind of sound is that, exactly? It’s not a happy laugh, definitely not. It’s got that edge of mockery, maybe a bit of superiority. I started running through words in my head.
- Could it be JEER? Well, jeering is taunting, but it’s not always a laugh, more like shouting insults.
- What about GIBE? Similar to jeer, more of a verbal jab.
- SNEER came to mind. That definitely fits the ‘taunting’ part. It’s often a facial expression, but you can kind of imagine a sneering sound, right? Like a little scoff.
Finding the Fit
I looked at the number of letters required in the grid. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, it was six letters. That ruled out JEER and GIBE immediately. SNEER was five letters, so that wouldn’t fit either in this hypothetical case. (You know how it is, sometimes you just blank on the letter count until you really look).
Okay, back to the drawing board. What’s another word for that kind of unpleasant laugh? Then it clicked. SNICKER. Yes! That felt right. A snicker is that half-suppressed, often mean-spirited laugh. It fits the ‘taunting’ description perfectly. It usually fits common crossword letter counts too, like six or seven letters.
So, I mentally checked the letters I might already have had from crossing words. If it was a six-letter word starting with ‘S’ and maybe an ‘I’ in the third spot… yeah, SNICKER seemed like a strong possibility. Without the actual grid in front of me now, I can’t be 100% certain that was the answer for that specific puzzle, but it’s almost always the word they’re looking for with that clue.
Anyway, I penciled in SNICKER (always pencil first, learned that the hard way!). It felt good to figure that one out. It wasn’t super obscure, just needed a moment to sift through the different kinds of not-so-nice laughter. Fun little mental exercise for the day.
