The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word EIGHTEEN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
E
I
G
H
T
E
E
N
More clues leading to the result EIGHTEEN
- Without leaders we might see an age of maturity
- A round number?
- A number of half-cut neighbours teeter with head fully down
- Just an adult that’s on board between 1 and 4
- The genie let loose when boy becomes man?
- Majority rule’s ending, e.g. in the riots
- Any young person in speaking for majority
- The majority of English people in recent times
- Sandwich contains this many greens
- The genie ruffled the majority?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Number of holes" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case number of holes = eighteen.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 EIGHTEEN mean?
EIGHTEEN numeral- The cardinal number occurring after seventeen and before nineteen, represented in Roman numerals as XVIII and in Arabic numerals as 18.