The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word PROOF
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
P
R
O
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F
More clues leading to the result PROOF
- Academic possessing old evidence
- Certification only initially accepted by senior academic
- Confirmation is academic, being empty?
- Academic has nothing in evidence
- Page covering mathematical sequence
- Impervious academic eats nothing
- Academic takes sod all for establishing evidence
- Impervious to evidence
- Penny’s covering evidence
- Test invulnerability
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "evidence" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case evidence = proof.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does PROOF mean?
PROOF noun- An effort, process, or operation designed to establish or discover a fact or truth; an act of testing; a test; a trial.
- The degree of evidence which convinces the mind of any truth or fact, and produces belief; a test by facts or arguments which induce, or tend to induce, certainty of the judgment; conclusive evidence; demonstration.
- The quality or state of having been proved or tried; firmness or hardness which resists impression, or does not yield to force; impenetrability of physical bodies.
- Experience of something.
- Firmness of mind; stability not to be shaken.
- A proof sheet; a trial impression, as from type, taken for correction or examination.
- A sequence of statements consisting of axioms, assumptions, statements already demonstrated in another proof, and statements that logically follow from previous statements in the sequence, and which concludes with a statement that is the object of the proof.
- A process for testing the accuracy of an operation performed. Compare prove, transitive verb, 5.
- Armour of excellent or tried quality, and deemed impenetrable; properly, armour of proof.
- A measure of the alcohol content of liquor. Originally, in Britain, 100 proof was defined as 57.1% by volume (no longer used). In the US, 100 proof means that the alcohol content is 50% of the total volume of the liquid; thus, absolute alcohol would be 200 proof.
- To proofread.
- To make resistant, especially to water.
- To allow yeast-containing dough to rise.
- To test the activeness of yeast.
- Used in proving or testing.
- Firm or successful in resisting.
- (of alcoholic liquors) Being of a certain standard as to alcohol content.