Private

As a detective, I approached the crossword clue ‘Private’ with an analytical and methodical mindset. Firstly, I considered the length of the word, the number of letters, and the fact that it was most likely an adjective. I then thought about possible synonyms for the word ‘Private‘, such as ‘confidential‘, ‘secret‘, and ‘restricted‘. Using these synonyms, I scanned through the intersecting letters to see if any common letters emerged.

As I scoured the crossword, I noticed that the intersecting letters seemed to spell out ‘NONPUBLIC‘. The more I looked at it, the more it made sense. ‘NONPUBLIC‘ is a term frequently used in government or legal settings and is synonymous with private or confidential. It was then clear to me that ‘NONPUBLIC‘ was the answer to the crossword clue.

Overall, through careful consideration of the length of the word and possible synonyms, along with a close examination of the intersecting letters, I was able to confidently deduce that the solution to the crossword clue ‘Private’ was indeed ‘NONPUBLIC‘.