Unlocking the Mystery: How to Smoothly Solve the Crossword Clue

As a detective tasked with solving the mystery of the crossword clue ‘Smooths’, my first step was to analyze the word and its context. ‘Smooths‘ is a verb which implies an action of making something smooth or even. Therefore, I deduced that the answer must be a synonym of ‘smoothes‘ and related to the idea of evening something out. Next, I focused on the number of letters in the word. With five letters, I thought of words such as ‘level‘, ‘equal‘ and ‘flat‘. However, after examining the crossword, I realized that the word probably had to start with ‘E‘ due to the overlapping letters with other words on the grid. This led me to the answer ‘EVENS‘ which fits all the criteria. It is a verb, it means to make something smooth or equal, and it starts with ‘E‘, fitting perfectly in the puzzle. My thought process and insights aided me in cracking the clue and solving the mystery.