Other forms: clues
A clue is a small piece of information that points you towards an answer. The muddy footprint by the back door, a receipt left in a coat pocket, the number four across in the crossword.
Detectives hunt for clues, and so does anyone who has lost their keys: you look for a clue TO where they went, or a clue ABOUT what happened. In a crossword or a quiz, the clue is the wording built to lead you to one answer, which is exactly what this game hands you. Two everyday phrases matter more than the rest: 'I haven't a clue' means you have no idea at all, and someone clueless has no idea about anything. You can also clue somebody in, which means tell them what they are missing. A clue only ever points at the answer; it is never the answer itself.
1nounclueA small piece of information that helps you find an answer or solve a mystery.
“The single muddy footprint was the only clue the police had.”
2nounwordingThe wording of a crossword or quiz question, written to lead you to one particular answer.
“She solved the last clue in the crossword over breakfast.”
3verbgiveTo give somebody the information they are missing; nearly always 'clue in'.
“Someone should clue him in before the meeting starts.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
clue is a piece of information.
Also accepted in games: hint
A clue was once a clew, a ball of thread. Old English cleowen and Proto-Germanic *kliuwina meant a ball or a clump, and the modern spelling is simply a variant of clew. The meaning turned on one story: Theseus unwound a ball of thread through the Minotaur's labyrinth so he could find his way back out. Follow the thread, find the answer.
Proto-Indo-European
*glew- — to ball up, clump together; lump, swelling
Proto-Germanic
*kliuwīną
Proto-West Germanic
*kliuwīn — ball, clump
Old English
clēowen
Middle English
clew
English, today
clue
Built from
Variant of clew (“a ball of thread or yarn”), from Middle English clew, clewe, clowe, clue, clwe, clyw, clywe, from Old English clēowen, clīewen, clīowen, clīwen, clȳwe, clȳwen (“ball, sphere; skein”), from Proto-West Germanic kliuwīn (“ball, clump”), from Proto-Germanic kliuwīną, klewô (“bale, ball, clump, mass”), from Proto-Indo-European glew- (“to ball up, clump together; lump, swelling”). Sense evolution with reference to the one which the mythical Theseus used to guide him out of the Minotaur's labyrinth. More at clew. 2 Cognate with cim khnaul (“ball of yarn”), Dutch kluwe, kluwen (“ball thread or yarn, clew”), German Knäuel (“ballyarn; tangle”), Norwegian Nynorsk kljå (“a loom weight”); also Sanskrit ग्लौ (“the moon; camphor; the earth”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA