Stumped by ‘Clipped’ Crossword Clue? Get the Answer Here!

As a detective of language, I began with analyzing the clues given to me by the crossword puzzle. The term ‘clipped‘ immediately caught my attention. To me, ‘clipped‘ implies something short or brief. I thought of words like ‘trimmed down‘, ‘cut off‘, or ‘snipped‘. However, I could not immediately reconcile any of these words with the layout of the crossword puzzle. This is where my linguistic knowledge came in handy. I began to think of homonyms – words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings – that would fit the framework. The word ‘Terse‘ immediately sprang to mind. It means brief and concise, and the word itself is short and to the point, much like how one may describe a clipped sentence. With this in mind, I filled in the answer ‘TERSE‘, and the crossword puzzle came to life before my eyes. It was incredibly satisfying, and I felt elated in my role as a language detective.