Working on the playful clue “Hookup culture adherent?”? Below you’ll find solver-friendly hints, a spoiler-safe reveal, and a quick breakdown of the wordplay. For daily help and archives, visit Clue of the Day.
Hints (no spoilers)
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Why “SYSADMIN” Fits This Clue
The question mark signals wordplay. “Hookup culture” usually evokes a social context, but here it’s re-parsed as a literal culture of hooking up equipment. A system administrator—entered as SYSADMIN—sets up and maintains hardware and networks: running cables, connecting endpoints, configuring switches, and getting users “hooked up.”
In American-style crosswords, multi-word titles or roles are written without spaces. If you drifted toward “ITPRO” or “TECH,” crossings generally steer you to the specific, widely recognized job title. The clue’s playful surface + “?” are classic signals to reinterpret a phrase literally.
Tip: when you spot clues that mash a modern social phrase with a “?”—try swapping in a literal, workplace or object-based sense. Then test your candidate against crossings for confirmation.
Strategy: Track the Register Shift
Editors love flipping contemporary idioms into concrete tasks. Scan for words like hookup, connection, link, plug and think of roles that do that work. Short, compact job titles (SYSADMIN, ITPRO, AVTECH) are common fill; crossings decide which one fits.
