The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word ICTUS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
I
C
T
U
S
More clues leading to the result ICTUS
- Desert plant — about to leave for one gets stress
- Losing face, grimace in stress
- Stroke part of poet's foot
- Horrified grimace right off indicates stress
- Stroke cut wildly is making the boundary
- Abrupt attack is capturing court, you said
- I’ll get cut treated, the source of some stress
- Grimace when run’s abandoned, having stress in foot
- Sudden attack leads to international court taking unprecedented steps
- One cut out sugar at first to get fit
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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 ICTUS mean?
ICTUS noun- The pulse.
- A sudden attack, blow, stroke, or seizure, as in a sunstroke, the sting of an insect, pulsation of an artery, etc.
- The stress of voice laid upon an accented syllable of a word. Compare arsis.
- In conducting, the indication of a musical event, most often the beat of the tempo or the entry of a section of the orchestra.