Smoking

As a detective trying to solve the mystery of the crossword clue ‘Smoking’, the first step in my thought process would be to consider words and phrases that immediately come to mind when we think of smoking. These include cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smoke rings, and even the act of lighting up. However, as I continue to think about the word ‘smoking’, I start to think about the idea of intense heat, burn, or flame. This leads me to consider words like ‘blazing’, ‘fiery’, or ‘red hot’. As I consider this list, I see that only one word fits the crossword puzzle’s requirement of having five letters – ‘REDHOT’. This makes sense because smoking is often associated with heat and fire, and a red hot ember is one of the images that people conjure up when they think of smoking. With this insight, I confidently fill in ‘REDHOT’ on the puzzle, feeling one step closer to solving the mystery.