The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word CUES
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
C
U
E
S
More clues leading to the result CUES
- Helpful words coming out of rescue ships
- Lines for an American spoken as signals for action on stage
- Hearing of lines, actors may need these
- Signals and strikes the ball?
- Signals left out of things like this
- Learner put off bits of crossword? Offer hints
- Prompts rows from what we hear
- Signs left out of things like this
- Speaking lines, actors might need them
- Signals last of sugar to be removed from preserves
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Helpful words" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case helpful words = cues.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.