The answer is REMOTE, six letters. This clue carries a wide spread of standard fills, and how many blanks you have settles most of it: FAR needs three, AFAR and COOL need four, REMOTE needs six, FARAWAY needs seven. Before choosing, decide whether the clue is talking about miles or about manner, because those are two separate answer lists wearing the same one word clue.
Miles or manner, and how to tell
Distant covers physical separation and emotional separation, and English uses the same word for both without blinking: a distant galaxy and a distant father. Constructors love that overlap because a single innocent word can point in two directions at once while the surface reading admits nothing.
Two signals usually resolve it. First, the neighbors. A clue sitting in a puzzle with astronomical or geographical entries around it is pointing at space. Second, the part of speech implied by any extra wording. A clue reading distant, as a relative is about kinship, which is yet a third sense and usually wants a phrase rather than a single adjective.
Remote is doing three jobs in modern English
REMOTE is the richest of the candidates because it has drifted into three distinct meanings that all stay live. There is remote as in place, a remote cabin. There is remote as in probability, a remote chance, where nothing physical is far away at all. And there is the noun, the remote, the handset on the couch, which arrived when remote control got shortened in ordinary speech.
That third sense is the one that makes REMOTE a favorite of constructors, because a clue can present a perfectly ordinary sentence about television and still want the adjective, or the reverse. When you have six squares and the crossings are giving you R and E, do not spend time deciding which meaning is intended. The fill is the same word either way.
Three squares through eight
Count first, then check the sense column.
| Letters | Answer | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | FAR | Plain physical distance |
| 4 | AFAR | Distance, usually adverbial |
| 4 | COOL | Manner, an unfriendly greeting |
| 5 | ALOOF | Manner, and deliberately kept up |
| 6 | REMOTE | Place, chance, or the handset |
| 7 | FARAWAY | Place, or a faraway look |
| 8 | FARFLUNG | Scattered over a wide area |
ALOOF is worth flagging as its own clue rather than a footnote to this one. It differs from the rest in implying a choice: a remote village cannot help where it is, while an aloof guest has decided to stand apart. If your clue carries any hint of attitude, that is the sense at work, and we treat it separately in the entry for that word.
Why AFAR keeps its A
AFAR almost never appears as a bare adjective in speech. It lives inside phrases, chiefly from afar, which is how nearly everyone alive uses the word. That is why the crossword A on the front feels slightly archaic even to solvers who fill it in without hesitation.
The practical upshot is a reliable clue convention. If the wording includes from, or reads like an adverb rather than an adjective, four squares want AFAR rather than COOL. If the wording is a bare adjective and the answer is four letters, COOL is live and so is the temperature pun the editor is probably enjoying.
The distant relative problem
A third sense hides in plain sight: distant cousin, distant ancestor, distant branch of the family. Grids handle it in two ways. Short slots take an abbreviation or a word like KIN paired with other wording, and long slots take a full phrase. If you have counted seven or more squares and none of the adjectives fit, check whether the clue has a family angle you skimmed past.
The same check catches the time sense. Distant past and distant future are ordinary English, and a clue built on them may want a compound rather than a synonym. When every plain adjective fails the crossings, the problem is usually the sense rather than your vocabulary, so go back over the wording and work out what exactly is meant to be far away.
Frequently asked questions
What is the three letter answer for Distant?
FAR is the three letter fill. It is the plainest possible reading of the clue, and it shows up when a grid needs a very short entry.
How do I choose between REMOTE and FARAWAY?
Count the squares. REMOTE takes six and FARAWAY takes seven, and both work for the ordinary physical sense, so the grid decides rather than the wording.
Does Distant ever mean unfriendly?
Yes. When the clue points at manner rather than miles, four and five letter slots want COOL or ALOOF, which both describe a person keeping other people at arm's length.
