About crossword clue

The most likely answers for the crossword clue “About” are SOME, MOST or NEAR, with 4 letters. Below are 62 answers from 3 to 14 letters, best match first in each length, then what each top answer means and how to tell them apart.

Have some letters? Use the crossword solver

The best answers, explained

HIP 3 letters · adjective

informed about the latest trends

SOME 4 letters · adverb

(of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct “some forty people came”

AROUND 6 letters · adverb

in the area or vicinity “hanging around”

ROUGHLY 7 letters · adverb

(of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct “roughly $3,000”

INNOCENT 8 letters · adjective

not knowledgeable about something specified “American tourists wholly innocent of French”

VIRTUALLY 9 letters · adverb

(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but “virtually all the parties signed the contract”

PARTICULAR 10 letters · adjective

exacting especially about details “very particular about how her food was prepared”

DISTRIBUTED 11 letters · adjective

spread out or scattered about or divided up

CONTRIBUTING 12 letters · adjective

tending to bring about; being partly responsible for “the seaport was a contributing factor in the growth of the city”

APPROXIMATELY 13 letters · adverb

(of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct “lasted approximately an hour”

CIRCUMSTANTIAL 14 letters · adjective

fully detailed and specific about particulars “a circumstantial report about the debate”

Telling them apart

With 4 squares, SOME, MOST, NEAR, NIGH, SICK and WILD all fit. The third letter tells them all apart: M → SOME · S → MOST · A → NEAR · G → NIGH · C → SICK · L → WILD. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 5 squares, ASTIR, CLOSE, CRAZY, PICKY, FUSSY and DOTTY all fit. The second letter tells them all apart: S → ASTIR · L → CLOSE · R → CRAZY · I → PICKY · U → FUSSY · O → DOTTY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

With 6 squares, AROUND, ALMOST, NEARLY, ACTIVE, SAVING and QUEASY all fit. The second letter tells them all apart: R → AROUND · L → ALMOST · E → NEARLY · C → ACTIVE · A → SAVING · U → QUEASY. Fill in that crossing answer first.

What “about” means

• adverb: (of quantities) imprecise but fairly close to correct (“in just about a minute”)
• adverb: all around or on all sides (“dirty clothes lying around (or about)”)
• adverb: in the area or vicinity (“a few spectators standing about”)
• adverb: used of movement to or among many different places or in no particular direction (“wandering about with no place to go”)

A clue usually points at one of these senses, so the right answer is the one that matches the sense the puzzle means: check it against the crossing words.

About these answers

We match the clue against our own thesaurus and dictionary (Open English WordNet): words that mean the same as ABOUT, and words whose definition is ABOUT. We don't copy answers from newspaper puzzles, so a clue that leans on trivia or wordplay may need the crossing letters instead.